{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221043052/http://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=47853", "EB-5 Visa Program Faces Tough Questions", "2013-12-20", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "IA", "Charles Grassley", "G000386", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "The EB-5 visa program has been used for decades as a tool to encourage foreign investment and job creation in the United States in exchange for a U.S. visa.\u00a0 Over the past three years, there has been a remarkable increase in the amount of foreigners using this visa program.\u00a0 At first glance, this appeared to be a positive development.\u00a0 But, as whistleblowers came forward, and we took a detailed look, there appear to be some major flaws that need fixing. For instance, last week I sent a letter to the Acting Director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement inquiring about a memo from his agency that expressed grave concerns about the EB-5 visa program.\u00a0 The internal memo identified several areas of vulnerability within the EB-5 visa program, and it questioned whether the vulnerabilities could be fixed in order to \u201censure the integrity of the program.\u201d I was especially concerned about a section of the memo that outlines how the EB-5 program \u201cmay be abused by Iranian operatives to infiltrate the United States.\u201d\u00a0 According to the memo, Immigrations and Custom Enforcement investigators became concerned about the program while scrutinizing operatives who allegedly \u201cfacilitate terrorism and are involved in an illicit procurement network that exports items to Iran... .\u201d Whistleblowers provided this memo, as well as evidence that the leadership team at Citizenship and Immigration Services was susceptible to political pressure and favoritism.\u00a0 The U.S. immigration system should be governed by equal application of the law\u2014not by who has the best political connections to the director of the agency.\u00a0 Unfortunately, despite concerns of many senators and an ongoing investigation by the independent Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security, Senate Democrats proceeded to vote on the now former director of Citizenship and Immigration Services to be the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. The national security concerns that whistleblowers brought forward, along with the internal memo, show reason to take a hard look at the EB-5 visa program and what fixes need to be made to ensure that the security of the American people isn\u2019t compromised.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221043052/http://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=47853"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4900490641593933, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}