The 20-year-old program, known as EB5, has brought in about $2 billion in investment and has been aggressively promoted by the Obama administration as a way to create jobs, especially in rural areas with high unemployment. Rich immigrants willing to invest $500,000 in a business are awarded permanent green cards for themselves and their families.
Critics who support strict limits on immigration said this amounts to selling green cards on the cheap, insisting the money go into the U.S. Treasury instead of spreading it around to developers.
