The poor and huddled masses are old school.
If you carry the equivalent of MasterCard you now have clout at Ellis Island or whatever passes today for the gateway to the American Dream.
Some are quick to pin the monetizing of access to America on President Trump.
That’s easy to understand why they might reach that conclusion based on the details about the proposed Trump Card posted Sept. 25 on — what else — the TrumpCard.gov website.
But don’t be quick to blame Trump.
Trump, as they say, didn’t start the fire.
The ability to live, work or study in America has carried a price tag for those that could afford it since 1990.
That’s when Congress — controlled by the Democrats with George H.W. Bush in the White House — rolled out the EB-5 Visa program.
For a $1 million investment in a non-Targeted Employment Area in a commercial venture that creates 10 American jobs, a foreign investor could secure a conditional green card for the investor, spouse, and children under 21 giving them the right to live, study, or work in the United States.
If $1 million was a bit pricey, they could go for the “discount” version.
For a mere $500,000 they could get the same deal if they invested the money in a Targeted Employment Area. One of the requirements was the jobs they created needed to be in high unemployment areas.
In 2011, Manteca qualified.
That was when Next Bay Properties based in Alamo in the Bay Area proposed an EB-5 project in Manteca. The year was 2011.
It was dubbed the Trails of Manteca and involved building 1,673 single family homes and apartments.
It would create 529 jobs and would give 47 foreigners a way to buy themselves into acquiring a conditional green card.
Long story short, the project went belly up.
Someone stepped in who could actually create jobs and build homes. Today, the Trails is a Raymus Homes development that was whittled down to 1,245 homes and no apartments.
Now fast forward to 2019.
President Trump 1.0 upped the ante on his way out of office.
He signed an executive order increasing the price to $1.8 million for non-TEA investments and $900,000 for TEA investments.
President Joe Biden had Trump’s change overturned.
In its place, he lowered the cost of an EB-5 Visa down to $1,050,000 for a non-TEA and $800,000 for a TEA.
Yes, Biden lowered the price for rich foreigners to not just get their foot in the door but to cut in front of the line of other migrants that aren’t as well off.
Now fast forward to this year and President Trump 2.0.
Apparently the man who likes to brag that he built Manhattan, no longer believes in the power of putting cash to work creating jobs for the American people.
It is why he wants to replace the EB-5 Visa permit with the Trump Gold Card.
Instead of investing in America, he just wants a check written directly to the US Treasury.
The details are posted on TrumpCard.gov.
The Trump Gold Card, if Trump gets his way, reduces the EB-5 Visa into a pure cash transaction. No investment in America. No jobs created.
But wait, there’s more.
You can really carry clout.
All it takes is $5 million and you can carry around the Trump Platinum Card.
It gets you the same perks as the Trump Gold Card plus something that is priceless.
If the holder doesn’t live in the United States more than 270 days a year, their world income will be exempt from United States taxes.
It might just pay Jeff Bezos to renege his American citizenship then apply for a EB-5 Visa.
Once he has that, he just needs to spend 95 days offshore on his super yacht and, voila, no world income tax.
It clearly strikes some that there is a dollar price on an American green card. But before they finger pointing, there are blue and red handprints all over it.
The real question that needs to be asked is this: How many people are put to work by giving the federal government $1 million with no strings attached as opposed to the same $1 million going into a private sector investment with the requirement that it produced 10 jobs?
Not trying to revisit the chain saw toting days of Elon Musk that seems to have happened decades ago with how fast things are spinning in DC these days, but wasn’t the basic pitch given was governmentit spending wasn’t efficient?
As for the actual concept of the rich being able to “buy” a green card and get a fast track to citizenship if they so desired, it made sense if it was done to strengthen the American economy for all.
Such was the original theory behind the HB-1 Visa that another executive order tacked a $100,000 fee on. Even some highly skilled American-born tech workers who are unemployed that are competing for the same jobs noted in interviews with the Wall Street Journal that many of the HB-1 employees they worked with were “brilliant" and disproportionately generated more jobs than many others did through their tech advancements.
Jobs, it should be noted, that overwhelmingly have gone to American-born workers.
Then there is the most pressing green card of all that provides this country legally with much needed agricultural workers and other laborers.
Why not reform that process that fills needed jobs that most Americans have no stomach for although they are critical to keeping their stomachs filled?
Immigration — legal and otherwise — has been a massive mess going back to at least the 1980s.
Both sides of the aisle when they had the ability to move the dial without relying on bipartisan votes squandered their opportunities even on issues where everyone is almost in 100 percent agreement such as a path to citizenship for so-called DREAMers, those brought to this country illegally by parents and who have been educated by this country.
The main reason the low hanging fruit isn’t harvested is because each side has always piled on more contentious immigration issues that makes taking action a non-starter.
Today’s mess is made substantially worse by the “A” woes — asylum.
A system was put in place that allowed you to say “I want asylum” when you enter the country and made it a point not to avoid being detained.
Asylum requests are a different animal.
Those seeking it can’t legally work while they wait for a ruling. That essentially makes them wards of the federal government while they await their day in court that due to the sheer volume experts say may take up to 10 years or so to process.
Until the government made it easier to request asylum, more than 90 percent of foreigners that asked for it without anything that specifically met federal rules were sent packing out of the country within days.
It should be noted the proposal to morph the EB-5 program into a cash only transaction is cut from the same cloth as the severely weakened threshold to seek asylum.
This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
