Rare Support Comes from Mainstream Media for Ending Hurtful EB-5 Visa

In what may be unprecedented support from the mainstream media, The Washington Post has called for an end to the fraudulent EB-5 visa. The visa is fundamentally a citizenship-for-sale vehicle that has been shamelessly abused by overseas investors, primarily Chinese, and may have played a role in Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s abrupt early retirement announcement.

Washington Post: EB-5 shows 'paltry' results.

Since 2012, CAPS has written extensively about the unfolding EB-5 scandal, and how it allows foreign nationals to make a token $500,000 investment, and promise to create a minimum of ten U.S. jobs, including those generated indirectly. In exchange, the entire family of the EB-5 holder can come to the United States and then get green cards that could eventually lead to citizenship.

Despite being staunchly pro-immigration, an ardent amnesty supporter and consistently in favor of expanding visa issuance, the Post wrote on its editorial page that since Congress created it in 1990, the EB-5 has shown “paltry results.” The editorial referred to a Brookings Institution report which found that since the EB-5’s inception, 8,500 visas had been issued directly to investors, but twice as many to family members.

Arguing that the EB-5 does little for local communities, a point CAPS made three years ago, the Post urged Congress to let the visa expire when its authorization runs out on September 30.