The Politico article claimed that The Trump administration is considering boosting the number of EB-5 visas offered to wealthy immigrants. It continued to claim that the proposal that could be included in one of the Senateís coronavirus rescue bills would significantly boost the number of visas offered annually from 10,000 to 75,000 while reducing the investment required to earn legal residence from $900,000 to $450,000. Finally, it argued that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a Trump ally, is pushing the expansion.
In an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Senator Graham denied the validity of the Politico article claims. He said that the claims are false and added that he did not talk to anybody about putting EB-5 on the COVID-19 bill. He also said that he would object to anything in the COVID-19 bill unrelated to solving the problem.
Finally, IIUSA, the EB-5 industry trade organization, in an article they published to their members, put the matter to rest. They said that such rumored proposals are non-starters from many quarters of Capitol Hill. Poison pills would kill efforts to earnestly and pragmatically reform and extend the EB-5 Regional Center program. Period. Investment amounts are not moving to $450,000, and to date, there are no new visas for the EB-5 program.