The Balitmore Sun praises EB-5 Visa Program

Original Story Here - The price of a green card: jobs

Our view: Immigration program tied to investment in America makes sense
The private firms developing two major state-sponsored projects say they are trying to take advantage of a little-known element of immigration law that provides green cards to foreigners who invest $500,000 to $1 million in a job-creating enterprise in the United States. It’s apparently the first time something like this has been tried in Maryland, and it’s making some people uncomfortable, including Senate Minority Leader Nancy Jacobs of Harford County. She’s contemplating legislation to make the use of investor visas illegal for state projects, saying it sounds like we’re selling citizenship and “turning the country over to the Chinese.”

That’s nonsense. The program, which has been around since 1990 but has expanded significantly in the last few years, certainly needs close monitoring to make sure it is achieving its maximum potential in terms of creating jobs. But the idea that we should give priority in immigration to people who are already successful in their native countries and who have the capital to invest in the development of this nation is absolutely sound.

Complaining that this visa program — known as EB-5 — amounts to selling American citizenship reveals a misunderstanding of how our immigration system works. Our borders aren’t like a deli counter where people take a number and wait their turn. We give preference, and always have, to people who are most likely to integrate easily into American society and to contribute the most to it. Skilled workers, people with advanced degrees or promises of employment, or those with family members already here get pushed to the front of the line. The reason the investment visa is known as “EB-5″ is that there were already four other employment-based visa programs before it. The government allots 10,000 visas a year to the EB-5 program, or 7.1 percent of those allowed for all employment-based visas, though the quota has never been met.

Those who are concerned about immigrants in American society tend to raise several objections, none of which apply here. EB-5 visa recipients are not illegal immigrants; they broke no laws to get here. They are not taking away jobs that could have gone to native-born Americans. On the contrary, they are creating jobs that, by law, must go to American citizens or legal residents. They are not straining the social safety net. Instead, they are sufficiently rich to afford a six- or seven-figure investment, and they are volunteering to come here and pay federal, state and local taxes.....

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