Say that’s not so! Name that party!
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has released hundreds of pages of emails plus other documents in support of its investigation of improper influence on the EB-5 immigration program. Many of the documents discuss hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for film and television productions from Sony Pictures and Time Warner with prominent politicians including former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendall and the office of former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa interjecting in an effort to get approvals.
Since inception in 1990, the EB-5 visa program allows foreign nationals to become conditional permanent residents upon an investment of at least $500,000 for a qualifying project that creates American jobs. Entertainment studios begun to eye the program to get film investment capital, but some projects have been rejected. For example, in 2009, Lionsgate was denied funding from EB-5 investors because it was determined that the studio was not legally obligated to accept the funding.
After a whistleblower stepped forward, DHS’s inspector general looked into whether Alejandro Mayorkas, former director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, gave special treatment to politically-connected applicants and exerted improper influence in the adjudication of the EB-5 program. A core part of the investigation looked into Mayorkas’ order reversing a decision denying funding of Sony movie projects. He’s also said to have handpicked a review board to review a separate series of Time Warner movie projects.
Late last month, a report about the investigation was released. The report’s discussion on how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid intervened over some Las Vegas projects and how Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe interjected for an electric car company commanded the most press attention, but the report also dealt significantly with the proposed projects involving Lionsgate, Sony and Time Warner. […]
In 2012, the government immigration office began hearing a lot of lobbying on petitions dealing with 240 investors who were pledging $250 million for films from Time Warner. […]
The immigration staffers are even said to have drafted a denial decision before Mayorkas shook things up with a new procedures and a new review board, which in 2013, was directed to look into the Time Warner case.
In March 2012, the board is described as having a teleconference with California staff recommending denial of the petitions. One adjudicator expressed the opinion, “We did not feel that the project was creating new jobs, and that [the project was] just using the money to replace other funds available to Time Warner, including cash reserves and their $5 billion revolving credit facility with Citibank. So the EB-5 money was not really resulting in any new projects that would not have otherwise been produced in the absence of EB-5 capital.”
Two days later, according to the inspector general’s report, the decision from higher-up to approve was passed along, leading to staff resentment and one member’s description of a “mad rush” to approve the many petitions.
The inspector general says it can’t determine Mayorkas’ motives for intervention but says that actions taken “created an appearance of favoritism and special access.”
Hollywood is Obama’s favorite ATM. A little help from foreign immigrants to keep the cash flowing is a must.
Alejandro Mayorkas was just doing what was expected of him as an Obama nominee … and he’s now the Deputy Secretary at Homeland Security.
That should make us feel confident and secure, don’t you think?
Film production should never have qualified for the program in the first place. These productions are, by their nature, temporary. They don’t create permanent jobs; if they did, Pennsylvania would have its own version of Hollywood by now. The idea that somebody should be able to buy his way in by spending half a million to employ a film crew for a few months is a far cry from the purpose of the program, which was to encourage investment in bricks-and-mortar businesses that created real, permanent jobs.
Once we’re done crucifying the studios for abusing the program, and the Dems who aided and abetted them, let’s go after the legislators who crafted a sloppy bill and the bureaucrats who administered it. And let’s encourage our candidates to shut down every program that has been perverted to enrich the Dems and their friends.
i think a big part of the problem is they have a lot of in-house lawyers what honestly don’t have enough to do so they have to keep looking for ways to justify their employ
Pennsylvania does have its own version of Hollywood, i.e. a permanent film industry heavily subsidized by the state and localities. And has had for a long time, going back to the early ’90s at minimum, with permanent jobs of long standing, just as does New York, Toronto, Michigan, . . . the list is long that way. Oh, and it’s Rendell, with a second e.
Via Insty, dark-skinned dude from India poses as a black man to see if he can get into med school.
CNN disapproves. I think he’s a genius.
Progressives don’t like it when the absurdity of their positions is made blindingly obvious.