Stephen Yale-Loehr was quoted by Mercury News in “South Bay Pair Gamed EB-5 Visa Program for Millions in Profit from Wealthy Investors.”
Mr. Yale-Loehr noted that the United States issues 10,000 EB-5 green cards each year. Most go to investors’ family members, he said, but that still leaves thousands of investors who each pour at least $500,000 into U.S. companies. “You can do the math — that’s a lot of money that helps, or at least can help, stimulate the U.S. economy and create jobs for U.S. workers. But it is complex and it has to be done well.” Congress reauthorized the EB-5 program through September 2019. Mr. Yale-Loehr noted that as the expiration date approaches each year, “Congress talks about revamping the EB-5 program,” but then “the political gridlock sets up and they can’t get an agreement on substantive changes, so they kick the can down the road.”
Mr. Yale-Loehr was quoted by the Guardian in “Trump Administration Moves Spark Fears of New Immigration Crackdown.”
He noted that without action by Congress, which has declined to join Trump in most of his immigration initiatives, the administration’s legal options for altering policy are limited. The fastest way to accelerate the deportation of asylum seekers could be by expanding expedited removal, which could allow removals of migrants within 100 miles of the border up to 14 days after crossing. “But they would have to do that through a rule – they couldn’t just announce it. And so it would take some time to go through the rulemaking process.” He added, ” This administration doesn’t seem to have a coherent policy. It seems that the president simply wants to score political points by seeming to be tough on immigration without really thinking through the best way to get to the root cause of why people are fleeing violence in Central American countries to come to the United States. The rules are already stacked against immigrants trying to stay in the United States, and this administration is trying to make it even harder but without thinking through the consequences.”
Mr. Yale-Loehr was quoted by Syracuse.com in “Path for International Basketball Players at Syracuse Requires Patience, Hope.”
The article notes that embassy officials want to ascertain whether students will return to their home countries once they complete their educations. “That can be either easy or hard to prove depending on what country you’re coming from. We usually give the benefit of the doubt to Canadians and say, ‘I think you will go back.’ If it’s an African country, it may be very hard to get a student visa because the consular office does not think the person really plans on going back.”