Wealthy Mexicans making use of business visas to reach U.S.

San Antonio Express
EDWARD A. ORNELAS/eaornelas@express-news.net
By Todd Bensman - Special to the Express-News
September 21, 2009

None of his wealth could protect Mexican entrepreneur Pierre Oliver Gama Valdes from organized criminal gangs threatening his family for money; if anything, business success put a bull's-eye on his back.

But wealth did help Gama, who said he has started businesses that employ 500 people, get him and his family a ticket out of Mexico's line of fire, fast. It bought him legal residency in San Antonio and perhaps citizenship later, almost no questions asked.

Gama, 34, and a business partner who followed him here are among thousands of Mexico's affluent citizens using U.S. business visas to essentially buy an escape from their nation's drug war.

These visas, known as the “Eâ€