Commentary

by Bruce Felps

Superior minds understand this program better than I do, but it deserves the public spotlight.

The city of Dallas, through its City of Dallas Regional Center and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services EB-5 program, sells permanent residence green cards to individual foreign “investors” and their families.

For the low, low price of $500,000, someone from most anywhere else can purchase the right to call himself or herself a U.S. resident, presumably foregoing the usual naturalization and citizenship process. The investment buys the investor, spouse, and unmarried children younger than 21 each a green card.

The city takes the money, funnels it into the CDRC EB-5 program, and creates 10 jobs per investment … somehow, somewhere, in some business.

According to city information, 43 people paid their way into the queue and could receive green cards by March 31, undoubtedly after intensive background and security checks.

The investors, according to the city, hail from Mexico, China, and Nigeria, and the city probably got shorted there because most of us receive Nigerian offers for way more than a half-million dollars.

So anyway, there it is in a nutshell. Discuss.

Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He’s glad he was born right here in the United State of Texas. That didn’t cost him a dime … well, upfront.