Federal prosecutors in New York subpoenaed the company of President Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner late Wednesday over their use of the EB-5 federal visa program. The program issues green cards to immigrants who invest $500,000 in U.S.-based developments, 85 percent of which are Chinese.
The irony of the subpoena is difficult to ignore. The Kushner family company is in trouble for essentially selling green cards at the same time the Trump administration is pushing a plan to curtail the number of green cards issued each year. The new immigration policy President Trump rolled out Wednesday would crack down on legal immigration in favor of English-speaking, high-skilled workers. EB-5 applicants do not have a way of proving their level of skill, beyond the ability to finance projects for U.S. developers.
EB-5 visas, also known as golden visas, have faced scrutiny for lack of oversight. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) went as far as to call the program a magnet for fraud. In 2015, the Government Accountability Office found that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (UCIS) did not have sufficient controls in place to identify potential fraud in the EB-5 program or to assess its economic impact. Trump reauthorized the EB-5 program the day before Jareds sister, Nicole Kushner, pitched the visas to potential foreign investors.
While it isnt clear what exactly is being probed by attorneys, the subpoena concerns the Kushner Companies development of a Jersey City residential property called One Journal Square. Financing for the property came under scrutiny in May when Nicole Kushner pitched the EB-5 visa program to a group of wealthy Chinese investors while in Beijing, telling the group it would mean a lot to me and my entire family if they invested.