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FORMER INS COMMISSIONER CRITICIZES INS CRACKDOWN ON IMMIGRANT-INVESTOR VISA PROGRAM
Gene McNary, INS Commissioner from 1989 to 1993, has spoken out against the agency he once headed, calling their actions in cracking down on the immigrant-investor visa "unethical, immoral, unlawful and unconstitutional." McNary, until recently, worked for AIS, a company that specialized in helping people get investor visas. AIS’s practices, allowing immigrants to obtain green cards for as little as $ 125,000, well less than the $ 1 million required under the program, recently came under INS scrutiny.
The immigrant-investor program, started in 1990 in an effort to infuse new capital into the American economy, was an underused program until companies like AIS began marketing their services. The program was by and large unregulated until late 1997, when the INS General Counsel issued a ruling changing the agency’s policy. After that ruling, AIS came under scrutiny, and the INS is now threatening to deport many people who obtained their visas through the program.
McNary, speaking of the unfair nature of the recent turn of events, said "These people have changed their lives around, and the INS without any notice or hearing just willy-nilly reverses itself. That doesn’t seem quite American, does it?"
The INS maintains that the efforts of AIS subverted the requirement of the immigrant-investor program that the investment truly be at risk and turned it into a "buy a visa program." The changes, according to the Service, seek only to return to the original legislative intent.