President Trump’s new 60-day immigration pause will not apply to wealthy investors willing to pay up hundreds of thousands of dollars for the so-called “Golden Visa” — a particular favorite pathway for wealthy Chinese to gain a foothold in the U.S.
Mr. Trump’s proclamation announcing the pause, which he says is intended to help U.S. workers laid off because of the coronavirus-stricken economy compete for jobs, includes a number of exceptions limiting its scope.
Family of U.S. citizens, members of military families, and doctors and nurses will still be admitted. And so will those applying for the EB-5 visa, which is awarded to those willing to invest at least $900,000 in economic development in the U.S.
“What is the hurry to speed up the admissions in the EB-5 category, where there has been so much scandal and fraud, for so little benefit to American workers?” said Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which backs stricter immigration limits.
Those on the other side of the immigration debate also questioned the decision to exempt wealthy investors, with several pointing out the family companies of Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, make frequent use of the EB-5 program.
“The proclamation alters every single preference in the immigration system, some much more than others, with one clear exception — green cards for wealthy investors — a program that appears to benefit the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, through his family’s company and which has been the subject of SEC investigation,” said Ur Jaddou, director of DHS Watch and former top lawyer at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Chinese investors are among the most eager purchasers of EB-5 visas, accounting for most of the ones issued over the last decade, and leaving a massive backlog of others waiting to enter. Only 10,000 EB-5 visas can be issued each year, though more can be approved to get in the line.
The White House did not provide an on-the-record comment for this article.
EB-5 investors are supposed to prove they are creating jobs with their money. The program has been rife with fraud, and prominent Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have called to reform or scrap it.
Attempting to reform the program, the Trump administration has raised the minimum investment from $500,000 to $900,000.
Mr. Trump said his immigration pause will give Americans who have lost jobs a better chance at finding work as a recovery gets going.
“This will ensure that unemployed Americans of all backgrounds will be first in line for jobs,” the president told reporters minutes after he signed the proclamation Wednesday evening.
But immigration experts said the 60-day pause will have a slight effect on the overall jobs picture — about 26 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits over the last five weeks.
The Migration Policy Institute calculated that perhaps 26,000 people per month would be denied, or about 52,000 over the 60-day period.
Most of those, however, were already halted because the State Department stopped processing the applications as officers were shifted to new duties amid the coronavirus crisis.
Ms. Vaughan says Mr. Trump’s order could actually end up increasing immigration because it could spur the State Department to once again start processing the exempt categories such as the EB-5 visa and family members of citizens.
“However well intentioned, this executive order will provide little relief to Americans,” she wrote in a memo analyzing the president’s plans.
From the other side of the debate, immigrant-rights advocates accused Mr. Trump of trying to turn their communities into scapegoats.
“Legal immigrants are not to blame for the negative economic consequences caused by the COVID-19 crisis,” said Irene Oria, president of the Hispanic National Bar Association. “Numerous independent studies have shown that immigrants have an overall positive impact on the economy and on worker wages.”
The HNBA did not respond to a request detailing those wage studies.
The National Academy of Sciences, in a major report in 2016, concluded that immigration does have a “very small” depressive effect on wages, particularly for low-skilled and low-educated workers. The academy said new immigration didn’t have much effect on the employment rate — though it does reduce the employment rate of prior immigrants and reduces the number of hours that teens work.
In a January memo, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that immigrants who share the same skills and abilities as American workers do drive down wages, but for those with complementary skills they can boost productivity and have a positive effect on wages.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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