Senator’s Memo Shows Iran Links
In Homeland Security’s Troubled Immigration Program
A program that gives
coveted immigrant green cards to wealthy foreign investors was so susceptible
to fraud and abuse that it was used by an Iranian network that sought to send
banned high technology home and spread terrorism abroad, federal investigators said.
The EB-5 program was used
by “a network involved in a series of international assassinations and
terrorism operations” that also was “procuring a variety of goods for
Iranian entities,” states an unsigned memo from U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement made public Thursday. The memo was written in response to questions
asked by Janet A. Napolitano as homeland security secretary.
The memo called the EB-5
program a weak point in the nation’s immigration security because visa holders
can become green card holders and eventually citizens — without going through
the background checks that most prospective immigrants face. The program is
designed to attract foreigners who pledge to invest in the U.S. economy.
The memo was made public by
Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, in a letter to ICE acting Director John
Sandweg asking a series of questions about the case.
Angry law enforcement
officials accused Mr. Grassley of potentially jeopardizing ongoing
investigations, but the version his office released was heavily redacted, with
all names removed.
Homeland Security officials
rushed to defend the EB-5 program, which was reauthorized last year with Mr.
Grassley’s support.
Peter Boogaard, a
department spokesman, said all visa applications from the center in question
had been put on hold while a thorough investigation is carried out. “Federal
investigators found no evidence to suggest that the regional center was being
used for nefarious purposes and, following the completion of that investigation,
the request to hold all cases was formally lifted,” he said.
But the allegations will
darken the heavy cloud over the EB-5 program, which has snagged one Obama
nomination to the troubled Homeland Security Department and now threatens to
embroil Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat.
The memo describes one key
actor in the network as “a U.S. representative for an Iranian front company
suspected of involvement in facilitating terror and proliferation activities.”
The other works at one of the 200-plus regional centers established under the
EB-5 program. The centers bundle investors’ contributions, which must be at
least $1 million, or $500,000 in areas with struggling economies, and funnel them
to new businesses.
But the memo says the role
of the centers “inherently creates an opportunity for fraud,” partly because
the program does not require them to prove that the businesses funded have
directly hired the 10-jobs-per-visa minimum that EB-5 visas are supposed to
create. So-called “derived” or “indirect” jobs can be counted, too.
Until last year, the owners
and managers of regional centers were not subject to any kind of fitness or
background check and several centers have collapsed amid allegations of fraud
either by the center owners or the investors themselves.
The memo concludes that the
regional centers system should be scrapped.
Former officials said the
Homeland Security agency that administers the EB-5 program, U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services, has no history of expertise with adjudicating the
likely success of a business plan.
CIS Director Alejandro
Mayorkas has touted his reforms to the program, centralizing its administration
at headquarters in Washington , instituting anti-fraud measures and hiring as many
as 100 economic and business analysts.
“But you can be an MBA or
accountant and not know immigration law just as easily as the other way
around,” said Louis “Don” Crocetti Jr., who set up the CIS fraud detection and
national security office in 2003 and headed it until September 2011.
“We need to find that happy
medium,” he said, adding that he believed the current minimum investment for
the program, which remained unchanged since 1990, was “way too low.”
“It is amazing to me that a
person with half-a-million dollars would be considered either wealthy or an
investor,” he said.
He said the practice of
bundling small sums should be replaced by a hunt for “truly wealthy, successful
businesspeople” prepared to take active roles in managing their investments.
Mr. Mayorkas was nominated
in July as Homeland Security’s deputy secretary, but shortly before his
confirmation hearing, details leaked of an investigation by the Homeland
Security inspector general into allegations of improper interference by senior
CIS officials into the visa-approval process. Despite the ongoing probe,
Democrats pushed his nomination through committee Tuesday and it now awaits
action on the Senate floor.
This week, The Washington
Times reported that Mr. Reid also intervened on behalf of a regional center in Nevada to get visa applications expedited despite security
questions.
Though undated, the memo
refers to events in 2013. It says concerns about the vulnerability of the EB-5
program to abuse by foreign intelligence services, terrorist networks and
technology proliferators surfaced as early as late 2011. Other weak points
identified by an interagency federal review of the program last year include
the risk of money laundering or outright fraud by investors.
Reprinted from the Washington
Ben Ferro
benferro@InsideINS.com
Buying the American Dream!
ReplyDelete