Concern over housing losses and an attempt to stop home values declining have lead to a debate over an idea to have immigrants buy houses to gain a Green Card.

Last Thursday John Mauldin, president of Millennium Wave Advisers and author of the popular “Thoughts from the Frontline” e-letter floated an idea that, “give immigrants a pathway to citizenship if they buy a house”.

The report from Yahoo finance goes on to say:

The economic benefits of this concept are potentially powerful:

• An inflow of foreign money into the U.S. economy, which will both boost the dollar and the economy because of related spending.
• Help sop up the supply of excess homes on the market, which will help put a floor under prices and revive the construction industry, creating jobs.
• Help shore up America’s middle class. This assumes most immigrants with the money to buy a home are educated, white-collar workers who can help do what immigrants have done throughout U.S. history – energize the country as they pursue the American dream.

The article on Yahoo (see the entire piece here) continues:

“Mauldin doesn’t support giving financial incentives to immigrants or making citizenship automatic with a home purchase. We discussed whether this idea could ever fly politically. Mauldin believes that many Americans would welcome hard-working individuals into their neighborhoods to put a floor on their own housing prices and make the local economy thrive”.

You can watch the interview here:

My question to the media is:

 ”Why are we even discussing this program when we have a perfectly viable EB-5 investor visa program in place that is so under utilized?” A program that not only accomplishes the above goals but also CREATES JOBS FOR AMERICAN WORKERS while providing low-cost funds for infrastructure and other projects, a complete win-win for the U.S. Government and the American taxpayer.

Let’s not mess with the EB-5 program or any derivative of it that even considers the remote possibility of taking away the job creation element of the program. Our EB-5 program should be seen as an “Economic Development Program” first and an immigration program second. We are not going to win over any Washington support (it is not exactly overflowing from DC now) if we seek to remove the employment creation element of the EB-5 program.

A bit of a rant today but I feel so strongly that we need to utilize this outstanding program and we simply are not. First step on my agenda; let’s get a 5-year extension to the current EB-5 regional center program that will give wealthy foreigners the confidence to once again look at the USA as THE place to invest their money. Money we, the American taxpayer, can use to carryout some of those badly needed infrastructure projects the politicians are talking about each Sunday on Meet The Press and This Week.

Would like to hear what you have to say so please reply using this blog, Twitter or Skype.

Stephen Parnell