Whistleblower: Wealthy Foreigners Who Agree to Invest $500,000 in American Ventures are Given Green Cards, Despite Criminal Backgrounds

A senior federal agent testified last Wednesday at part of a U.S. Senate Hearing that there are serious security concerns surrounding a controversial immigration card program that has been handing out Green Cards to wealthy foreigners.

According to the whistleblower, the EB-5 immigration program approved visa applicants from China, Russia, Pakistan and Malaysia in as little as 16 days, despite a lack of basic necessary law enforcement screening.

“During the course of my investigation it became very clear that the EB-5 program has serious security challenges,” the tipster said. The hearing was attended by ABC News.

Through the EB-5 program, wealthy foreigners are given the opportunity to obtain a U.S. Green Card by agreeing to invest $500,000 or more in approved American ventures. ABC News said the network discovered records showing foreign applicants accused of fraud, money laundering, forgery and other crimes were able to obtain EB-5 visas. One Iranian businessman was able to gain recertification despite being the focus of an investigation into smuggling.

The EB-5 program, designed to create thousands of jobs by offering temporary residency and eventually Green Cards, has become a way for applicable foreigners to evade the traditional immigration process, ABC News reported.

Wednesday’s hearing was intended to illustrate the harassment and retaliation federal officials who attempt to report wrongdoings in their agencies often face. The tipster said that senior Homeland Security officials unmistakably warned her to “back off” when she began to report the wrongdoings up the chain of command.

“After disclosing gross mismanagement, waste and fraud that threatened the general public’s safety, National Security Risks and public corruption surrounding an EB-5 project, I was subjected to a significant amount of harassment and retaliation,” the tipster said. “I was removed from the investigation, a shoddy follow-up review was conducted and then in 2013, ultimately, the investigation was shut down,” she told senators.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security responded to ABC News without directly addressing the whistleblower’s allegations, saying the agency doesn’t comment on specific personnel matters.

“The Department of Homeland Security takes whistleblower protection very seriously and supports the rights of whistleblowers to engage in protected activity,” said Marsha Catron, a DHS spokeswoman, in response to ABC News’ query. “Similarly, the Department takes allegations of misconduct very seriously … When both an allegation of misconduct and a claim of whistleblower protection occur, the Department follows the law to resolve these issues appropriately.”

The U.S. Inspector General launched an investigation following ABC News’ investigation that uncovered “evidence of political meddling in the program, also relying heavily on whistleblowers from inside Homeland Security.” Senior members of the U.S. Senate last week proposed legislation aimed at preventing abuse of the EB-5 program.

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