Yeah, China sucks according to Trump!!! But if it weren’t for them, Jared Kushner’s fabulous 50 story luxury rental Trump Bay Street in New Jersey would never have gotten out of the ground. The visa in question is the EB-5 which promises a visa in exchange for investing in US properties. It was meant to attract development to depressed areas but of course is being exploited by rich developers like Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband, ergo Trump’s son-in-law.
Trump stirred fears of Syrian refugees not being scrutinized carefully enough after 48 months of background checks. These visas are processed sometimes in a matter of days, with little to no oversight in many cases. The Dept of Homeland Security has expressed concern about them.
The visa program is known as EB-5. In exchange for investing at least $500,000 in a project promising to create jobs, foreigners receive a two-year visa with a good chance of obtaining permanent residency for them and their families. In 2014, the most recent year for which records are available, the U.S. issued 10,692 of these visas -- 85% to people from China.
The Government Accountability Office, the investigative branch of Congress, found last year in a general report about the EB-5 program that many applications contained a high risk of fraud, and discovered cases of counterfeit documentation. State Department officials told the GAO that there is “no reliable method to verify the source of the funds of petitioners.”
Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican who is chairman of the judiciary committee, last month cited a memo from Homeland Security saying that EB-5 visa holders do not clear the same hurdles as other immigrants, like proof of education and work qualifications. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said at the hearing that while he has supported EB-5 over the years, "If the program is to continue, it must be reformed."
Last spring, a Homeland Security special agent testified that EB-5 applicants from China, Russia, Pakistan and Malaysia "had been approved in as little as 16 days, with files lacking basic law enforcement queries."
So much hypocrisy and conflict of interest, so little time