In a recent conversation someone asked why we should be lenient with the people living in the United States without legal permission. After all, there is a legal process.
I decided to look into the numbers and what I saw was enlightening. Evidently the system gives preference to relatives of people who are living legally in the United States. These numbers are from the National Foundation for American Policy. I don’t know anything about them other than their chart claims to have taken the numbers from a U.S. Department of State visa bulletin.
These numbers relate to people from Mexico that want to come to the United States legally:
- Unmarried adult children of a US citizen 17 year wait
- Spouses and minor children of permanent residents 6 year wait
- Unmarried adult children of permanent residents 16 year wait
- Married adult children of a US citizen 16 year wait
- Siblings of US citizens 14 year wait
Some can get a green card through their employment, but as I understand it that does not help with the spouse or children.
There is also a green card lottery. The U.S. allows 55,000 people a year through this system. In recent years people from Mexico have been ineligible.
If you invest $500,000 in a high unemployment area and will employ ten people then you and your spouse and unmarried children (under 21) can qualify.
What would you do? It seems to me that our politicians are not telling us the whole story.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
Cato
elpasospeak 
According to an Arizona attorney’s website, there is a Regional Center Pilot Program which allows foreign investors to put their money in a Regional Center (as opposed to a specific business under the regular EB-5 program) in order to gain permanent resident status.
Typically, these Regional Centers are in “target employment areas” which means that the investment required is $500,000 instead of $1 million. The “advantages” of investing in a Regional Center are that — now read this part carefully — THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT THAT THE INVESTOR ENGAGE IN THE DAY-TO-DAY MANAGEMENT OF A BUSINESS there. The jobs created by the investment can be direct or indirect (how do you quantify indirect job creation?), and the investor need not reside in the same area as the Regional Center.
And get this! Some Regional Centers offer “payment plans” for individuals in case the full $500,000 cannot be delivered by the investor up front. It is possible to provide a portion of the investment initially and the balance to be paid within a period that is agreed upon by the Regional Center and the investor.
The 10 jobs they must create? They simply need to show that they hope to create 10 jobs within a “reasonable amount of time” which can be years the way the program is defined. They do not truly have to create those jobs and hire people. In the case of one Juarez restaurant that moved here, nearly all of their employees were Juarez residents and the business delivery trucks used by this El Paso business had Mexico plates. The business closed. The owners still live here.
Sounds like we’re selling permanent resident status on the installment plan. And what systems are in place to really monitor these commitments?
What does this “investment” buy the new permanent resident? Immediate access to all government benefits, including Medicare, education, etc. That’s not a bad return on their investment. $500,000 is just the cost to buy an “e ticket” for the Great American Gravy Train loaded with entitlements.
This program also sounds like an ideal way to launder drug money and gain residency at the same time. Maybe that’s why we see people from Mexico opening businesses in El Paso, yet oftentimes there never seems to be anyone working at the place of business. Or the business operates for a brief period and then closes, yet the owners still live here.
Draw your own conclusion.
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