With the new year, the U.S. Congress is resuming work, and both the Republican and Democratic parties will continue to engage in a battle over immigration reform legislation, a key battleground from last year. According to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, House Speaker John Boehner and Republican leaders are expected to release a one-page document this week outlining principles and visions for reforming the U.S. immigration system. This indicates that the House is finally planning to begin work on immigration reform. As a leading organization in U.S. investment immigration, WorldWay Group pays close attention to the official policies related to the EB-5 investment immigration program.
House Speaker Boehner's spokesperson, Michael Steel, stated that Boehner is determined to commit to reforming the broken U.S. immigration system; however, rather than a comprehensive bill covering all aspects, he prefers to issue a series of smaller resolutions to gradually address the issues.
Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy expert at the Cato Institute, a well-known think tank in Washington, D.C., is confident that the U.S. will begin to enact a series of immigration bills in 2014. "Although 2014 is an election year, if we look back at history, some early immigration reform bills, such as those during the Reagan era, were also enacted in election years," he said.
The comprehensive immigration reform bill amendment passed by the Senate in June includes provisions related to EB-5 investment immigration. In a proposal put forth by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont, he suggested adjusting the annual quota of 10,000 EB-5 investment immigration (individual) visas to 10,000 family quotas, which significantly expands the number of investment immigrants each year. He also pointed out that the long-standing investment threshold of $500,000 is likely to be increased based on the inflation index. So far, this proposal, along with the Senate's comprehensive reform plan, is still pending review in the House, but there is a possibility that smaller proposals related to this reform may emerge in 2014.
In addition to legislative action in Congress, there are also new prospects for EB-5 at the administrative level in 2014. In last week's State of the State address, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced that Michigan has submitted an application to the federal government to establish an EB-5 regional center hosted by the state. Once approved, Michigan will become the second state, after Vermont, to fully support EB-5 investment immigration.
Furthermore, as early as October 2013, President Obama stated in Las Vegas the need for legislation to expand more investment immigration opportunities and to make the EB-5 regional center program permanent.
Regardless, the Republican Party has signaled its intention to achieve some progress on immigration reform before the midterm elections this year. The future of the existing policies regarding EB-5 will depend on the consensus and compromise between the two parties on Capitol Hill.
