The sister of Donald Trump’s White House Adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner has been busy letting wealthy Chinese investors know that for the low, low price of $500,000, they can simply walk right in, sit right down, and enjoy all the benefits of U.S. residency without having to bother with going through that pesky immigration process required of everyone else seeking entry to this country.
This should come as no surprise, given the clear fact that Donald Trump is a demonstrated liar as well as a contemptible hypocrite. While his Administration has been busy deporting hard-working immigrants who actually contribute to society and rejecting refugees from nations torn apart because of U.S. actions, he’s kicking that door wide open to foreigners with big bucks who are willing to hand that cash over to him, his family and their billionaire cronies.
At the heart of the Trump Crime Family’s latest shenanigans is what is known as the “EB-5 Investor Program.” This program allows high-net worth investors who will “make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the U.S.” and plan to “create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers” to sidestep the complicated and laborious immigration process.
The program has come under fire since the release of a report by the Government Accountability Office in August of 2015, which found fraud to be common. The report claimed the program had “no reliable method to verify the source of the funds of petitioners.”
A year before that, three GOP members of Congress, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Bob Corker of Tennessee, and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, raised serious concerns about the EB-5 Program, requesting a federal audit before it came up for re-authorization.
Of course, that was under President Obama. Now that the billionaire GOP has one of their own in the White House, many of those concerns have gone by the wayside as Trump has extended the program without any reforms. The ink from his signature was barely dry when Nicole Kushner Meyer strutted into a meeting with investors in Beijing, delivering a sales pitch encouraging them to sink their money into a New Jersey development deal being managed by (surprise!) the Kushner’s own real estate company. During that presentation, she just happened to drop her brother Jared’s name.
So much for draining the swamp.
Caught with their proverbial pants down, a representative of the Kushner Companies fired off a message to the media, apologizing if “mention of her brother was in any way interpreted as an attempt to lure investors,” emphasizing that it “was not Ms. Meyer’s intention.” The firm also mentioned that Jaren Kushner had “stepped away from the company in January and has nothing to do with this project” – although he was closely involved prior to that time.
The original intention of the EB-5 was a noble one: to attract foreign investment to impoverished communities. In practice however, it has become little more than a “green cards for cash” scheme allowing wealthy foreigners to simply shelter their money in upscale real estate in the U.S. while creating a two-tiered immigration system favoring those with money and status over refugees fleeing for their lives.
A few weeks ago, members of Congress were threatening to allow the program to expire unless there were major reforms. Apparently, the financial interests of the Trump Crime Family are more important. Should we have expected anything different?
