Bush Connected Regional Center Moves from Ballparks to Apartments

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A Texas firm co-founded by presidential son Neil Bush is recruiting foreigners to invest in Texas apartment complexes in return for a green card under a program initiated during his father's administration 25 years ago.
The Great Texas Regional Center, which first had plans to build five minor league baseball stadiums with investments from foreigners, has gathered investments from more than a dozen foreign investors seeking to get the right to live in the United States indefinitely under the so-called investor visa program.
Though Neil Bush was a co-founder and chairman of the firm, he has since left the company, according to Great Texas officials. Bush did not respond to requests for comment.

The details about the Texas regional center comes as the investor visa program is drawing increased scrutiny following an Homeland Security Inspector General's report charging that improper influence was exerted on behalf of regional centers with political connections.

Under the investor visa or EB5 program, as it is formally known, foreigners can get green cards by investing as little as $500,000 in a U.S. business. Though it has since been amended and expanded, the original program was created in 1990 under a law signed by Neil Bush's father, George H.W. Bush.

Roger Christoph, manager of Great Texas, said Neil Bush has not been involved in the firm since 2013. It was co-founded by Neil Bush in 2010 and he served as board chairman for about three years.

Christoph said Bush does not have any ownership interest in the regional center.
Bush, according to published reports, made several trips to China seeking to recruit investors.
Bush's biography with details of his role with Great Texas is featured prominently on the company web site.

Charles C. Foster, an attorney for Great Texas, said in a recent interview that plans to build six new baseball stadiums had been dropped in favor of investments in apartment complexes. The first, a 385 unit complex in Dallas, known as Aura Cedar Springs, is under construction.
Foster said additional apartment projects are planned in several other Texas cities including Midland and San Angelo.

Christoph, who had a background in developing minor league baseball parks, said that he learned of the investor visa program in 2009 and thought it might be a way to get funding for future stadium projects.

But, he said, he found  that potential investors, primarily from mainland China, were not interested in the idea.

"They (Chinese investors) have strong preferences with regard to project characteristics," Christoph wrote in an email response to questions.

"A minor league baseball facility does not fall within those parameters. Multi-unit residential projects and hotel projects seem to be more acceptable and have been our preference during the last two years," he added.

US CIS records obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request show that in 2013 the baseball park proposal had only attracted funding from a single investor.

Foster said that since the switch to apartment complexes, 14 applications have been filed with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in behalf of  investors.
The U.S. CIS records request for Great Texas produced over 100 pages of documents but the vast majority  were heavily redacted.
Under the original plan minor league ballparks and spots venue were planned in multiple cities including Amarillo, Houston, Denton and Laredo. The Laredo project alone was projected to produce 366 new jobs. The plans also called for a theme park called the Earthquest Institute.
CIS officials, the files show, did research into Neil Bush's background and included copies of his involvement in a failed Colorado savings and loan. One article detailed Bush being sued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Great Texas' application to be a designated regional center was nonetheless approved Dec. 13, 2011. Nationwide some 646 regional centers have been approved.
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Visa Firm Executive Made Illegal Contribution to Rendell

 By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A key figure in an investigation of improper influence in a federal investor visa program made an illegal $15,000 contribution in 2010 to then Gov. Edward G. Rendell.
Records of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board show that Tommy Rosenfeld admitted to making the improper contribution at an Aug 18, 2011 meeting of the panel. He agreed to pay a $15,000 fine.
Rosenfeld heads CanAm Enterprises, a company that has an ownership interest in a Valley Forge casino, which is licensed by the state gaming panel.
"Yeah, I apologize," Rosenfeld told the board. "I inadvertently violated the act. It was a mistake. It won't happen again."
Both Rosenfeld and Rendell figured prominently in an investigative report issued last week by the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which concluded that the then head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Alejandro Mayorkas, improperly intervened in three investor visa cases. One of those cases involved a CanAm affiliate.
Both Rendell and Rosenfeld, according to the report, made phone calls to Mayorkas seeking approval for pending applications under the investor visa program.
Rendell last week admitted contacting Mayorkas but insisted he did nothing improper and merely sought to have the agency issue a decision on the application. Rendell also acknowledged that after he left office in early 2011, he became a paid advisor to Rosenfeld's company.
According to the IG's  report, following Rendell's and Rosenfeld's interventions, visas sought by CanAm were approved. Staffers of the agency had already prepared rejection letters, but those were never sent.
Rendell did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Rosenfeld.
The reversal, according to the report, came as a shock to agency employees.

"The juxtaposition of Mr. Mayorkas’ communication with external stakeholders on specific matters outside the normal procedures, coupled with favorable action that deviated from the regulatory scheme designed to ensure fairness and evenhandedness in adjudicating benefits, created an appearance of favoritism and special access," the 99-page IG report states.

The gaming commission records show that Rosenfeld admitted writing a $15,000 check to Rendell's committee in October of 2010.

Under state law principals in licensed gaming companies are barred from making such campaign contributions. According to the gaming commission records Rosenfeld said he expected the $15,000 to be used by Rendell's committee to make contributions to other candidates. Rendell, himself, could not legally serve another term.

In the August 2011 hearing before the panel Rosenfeld testified that when he learned that his contribution was improper, he asked that it be refunded and it was.

"Absolutely, they understood, absolutely. Yes, it was done very promptly." Rosenfeld said of the refund.
State campaign finance records for Rendell's committee do not show a contribution from or a refund to Rosenfeld.

Rosenfeld and his company had a longtime relationship with Rendell, both while he was Philadelphia mayor and later as Pennsylvania governor.

CanAm partnered with the Philadelphia Industrial Development Commission in forming a regional center under the investor visa or EB5 program. Later CanAm formed a regional center covering 43 Pennsylvania counties with the Department of Community and Economic Development. That was approved during Rendell's tenure.

CanAm's projects in the state include $122 million in funding to Philadelphia's convention center, a project pushed personally by Rendell, and $26 million for a Comcast project. Rendell's longtime top aide, David L. Cohen is Comcast's executive vice president.

First approved in 1990 under then President George H.W. Bush, the investor visa program allows foreign investors who put at least $500,000 in a United States business to get green cards, which gives them U.S. residency rights.
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Rendell Intervened with Immigration Official

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell personally intervened with a top immigration official in behalf of a California firm seeking approval of a multimillion dollar foreign investment deal for a film company.
Rendell's intervention, which had immediate positive results, was detailed in a length report issued Tuesday by the Inspector General in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The report charges that in three separate cases, a top immigration official reversed actions by career staffers involved in running the investor visa program.
The report concludes that the three reversals followed personal pleas by politically connected investors.
Under the controversial program, foreign investors can get green cards by investing as little as $500,000 in a U.S. business.
Rendell, according to the report, contacted Alejandro Mayorkas on July 15, 2011 seeking reconsideration of the rejection of applications under the EB5 investor visa program for the Los Angeles Films Regional Center. Though he has since  been promoted to deputy secretary, Mayorkas at the time was director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers the program.
Even though he was on vacation at the time he got Rendell's call, Mayorkas immediately ordered a halt to denials of applications by individual foreign investors, the IG found.
"Within an hour of the Rendell phone call, Mr. Mayorkas directed the California Service Center to reopen LA Films denials and to stop processing any more denials," the 99-page report states.
The report notes that Rendell had had prior dealings with Mayorkas regarding an application for the same program involving the Philadelphia Industrial Development Commission.
The company involved in the Philadelphia deal, CanAm Enterprises, was headed by Tom Rosenfeld, who also headed the Los Angeles Film group.
According to the report staffers were surprised by Mayorkas order because it conflicted with decisions issued in virtually identical cases.
Following the 2011 phone call between Mayorkas and Rendell, the two had another conversation on Sept. 13, 2012 regarding the film application and in early 2013 an email from Rendell was forwarded to Mayorkas. Mayorkas subsequently had direct dealings with Rosenfeld by phone and email, despite staff advice that such communications were inappropriate.
Ultimately the applications were all approved over the protests of staffers who already had prepared a draft denial.
One staffer told the IG "the appearance of impropriety was overwhelming."



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Immigration Official Gave Special Treatment to Politcally Connected

By Walter F. Roche Jr.


A top U.S. immigration official intervened and gave favorable treatment to companies with strong Democratic Party ties in a program allowing foreign investors to become U.S. citizens.
In a 99-page report, the Inspector General in the Department of Homeland Security found that Alejandro Mayorkas, now second in command at DHS, personally intervened in three separate cases and reversed decisions by agency officials by giving approval for applications under the investor visa program.
According to the report one of the firms getting favorable intervention was headed by former Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe. Also benefiting from Mayorkas' actions was a Las Vegas company which had the backing of U.S. Senator Harry Reid. A third case was reversed following pleas from a Democratic governor, Pennslvania's Edward Rendell.
"In three matters before" his agency, the report states," Mr.Mayorkas communicated with stakeholders on substantive issues, outside of the normal adjudicatory process and intervened with the career USCIS staff in ways that benefited the stakeholder."
The IG concluded that in each case were it not for Mayorkas' intervention "the matter would have been decided differently."
The report states that McAuliffe, now the Virginia governor, was the chairman of a car company, Gulf Coast Funds, seeking approval for an investor visa program. Reid, the report states, sought assistance for a Nevada company, the Las Vegas Regional Center, building a casino and hotel. The third firm, the Los Angeles Films Regional Center, was based in Los Angeles and was seeking backing for Sony films.
According to the report, Mayorkas' actions caused widespread concern among career employes at the immigration agency. Though he is now a deputy secretary at Homeland Security, Mayorkas was director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the time the cases were being adjudicated.
Mayorkas, who filed a 32-page response to the report, told the IG his sole intention "was to strengthen the integrity of the program."
The IG found that 15 employees at different levels and different locations within the agency cited unprecedented levels of intervention by Mayorkas.
"The number and variety of the witnesses is highly unusual," the report states, adding that employees are often fearful of engaging in whistleblowing.
"Many employees concluded, not unreasonably, that the pressure exerted on them was because the individuals involved were politically connected," according to the audit.
The report concludes that Mayorkas' actions "created an appearance of favoritism and special access."
Under the investor visa program, foreign residents can get a green card by investing as little as $500,000 in a U.S. company.
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