Foreign Money in U.S. Elections

The first likely scapegoat in the EB5 scandal has been caught, slaughtered and shipped off for disposal.  The hope always is that one will be enough to quell any curiosity in the press or overturning a rock that leaves potential whistleblowers talking even more than they have.   The target was described this way by the Daily Caller:  "Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sent out an email Wednesday announcing his resignation.

The announcement follows an investigation by The Daily Caller News Foundation that showed neither the DHS, nor the Office of Government Ethics properly examined major ethics violations related to his fast-tracking of visas for a company run by Hillary Clinton’s brother."

Of the 10,000 EB5 visas issued in 2014, 9200 of them were issued to Chinese businessmen.

In case you have forgotten what the original matter was about, it involved Terry McAuliffe, the Governor of Virginia.  It appears that McAuliffe's car company was heavily financed by foreign investors.  Mayorkas was helping arrange EB5 visas for some of the people McAuliffe needed to be covered, in particular for political contributions, being separately investigated by the FBI.  The EB5 allows them to contribute as U.S. citizens rather than foreign nationals which would be illegal.  This might not end with the removal of Mayorkas who was really only a facilitator.

The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security started in September 2012, and finally finished the investigation and published a report in March 2015.   At the same time the case of Wang Wenliang, another of Terry McAuliffe's good foreign friends with money.  The New York Times describes this little escapade as part of McAuliffe's desire for foreign funding and laid out other states benefiting from this Chinese largess.    

Had it not been for the negative publicity for the Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Campaign and the association of the Governor's name with foreign money - again - the whole affair would have likely died after the first report.  But, as we proceed towards a national election, having foreign money in our election process is an ugly and dangerous precedent.  

2012. During the course of our work, we identified a significant number of DHS employees—more than15—with varying levels of responsibility and authority, including some very senior managers at USCIS and USCIS’ Office of the Chief Counsel (OCC), who each had direct contact with Mr. Mayorkas and were in a position to witness the events. Each conveyed the same factual scenario: certain applicants and stakeholders received preferential access to DHS leadership and preferential treatment in either the handling of their application or petition or regarding the merits of the application or petition. Other employees with whom we spoke did not have direct contact with Mr. Mayorkas, but witnessed significant deviations from the normal process for certain applicants. Many witnesses provided emails, written contemporaneously with the events, to support their allegations of special access and treatment.  The number and variety of witnesses is highly unusual. It is also quite unusual that a significant percentage of the witnesses we interviewed would Mayorkas 


Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) employees that Alejandro Mayorkas, then-Director of USCIS and current Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was exerting improper influence in the normal processing and adjudication of applications and petitions in a program administered by USCIS. Specifically, we were told that Mr. Mayorkas was in contact, outside the normal adjudication process, with specific applicants and other stakeholders in the Employment-Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) program, which gives residency preference to aliens who agree to invest in the U.S. economy to create jobs for U.S. citizens. We were also told he was exerting influence to give these individuals preference and access not available to others. 

Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) employees that Alejandro Mayorkas, then-Director of USCIS and current Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was exerting improper influence in the normal processing and adjudication of applications and petitions in a program administered by USCIS. Specifically, we were told that Mr. Mayorkas was in contact, outside the normal adjudication process, with specific applicants and other stakeholders in the Employment-Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) program, which gives residency preference to aliens who agree to invest in the U.S. economy to create jobs for U.S. citizens. We were also told he was exerting influence to give these individuals preference and access not available to others.