Investigation finds Mayorkas used visa program to help White House allies

By Will Swaim /
March 25, 2015
Part 75 of 76 in the series Terry McAuliffe - Carmogul

‘HANDS-ON’ MANAGEMENT: The Inspector General says Alejandro Mayorkas (left) overrode his own staff to help businesses with ties to prominent Democrats, including Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

By Will Swaim and Kenric Ward | Watchdog.org

WASHINGTON D.C. – Alejandro Mayorkas, the man President Obama and Senate Democrats once hoped would head the Department of Homeland Security, overruled his own U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff to expedite visa approvals for foreign investors in businesses with connections to prominent Democrats, a federal investigation released Tuesday concludes.

“In three matters pending before USCIS … 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 stakeholders,” wrote John Roth, the Inspector General. “In each of these three instances, but for Mr. Mayorkas’ intervention, the matter would have been decided differently.”

Mayorkas elbowed his way into each of the issues as the USCIS director responsible for the federal EB-5 program. The EB-5 program was created in 1990, and offers green cards to foreign nationals who invest at least $500,000 to create 10 or more jobs in U.S. companies.

In the three cases the IG investigated, the projects were linked to politically prominent individuals, two of them connected to likely presidential contender Hillary Clinton.

“Digging into the report and reading about specific cases, you can see just how questionable Mr. Mayorkas’ ethics and judgment were. And, just as bad, is the blind eye that the Obama administration turned when elevating this individual to the number two slot at the Department of Homeland Security,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

In one high-profile case, the Inspector General concluded that Mayorkas assistedformer Clinton fundraiser Terry McAuliffe in his bid for federal approval to solicit EB-5 investors for Greentech Automotive, a Virginia-based electric-car maker. The stakes were high for McAuliffe, then a candidate for the Virginia governorship campaigning in part on his bona fides as a car maker.

Buried in the report are at least two problems for McAuliffe.

The IG report makes it clear that McAuliffe’s plan to use EB-5 cash for Greentech ran into trouble among Mayorkas’ staffers.
“In interviews, several USCIS adjudicators expressed skepticism about Gulf Coast’s hybrid vehicle project,” the report reads. “According to one adjudicator, the consensus of those involved was that the project did not appear to be ‘credible’ because ‘it claimed a ridiculous amount of jobs would be created.’ Another adjudicator described the project as ‘pie in the sky.’ A third characterized it as ‘really not so good of a project.’”

Facing challenges inside USCIS and Watchdog.org’s revelations of McAuliffe’s connections to Greentech, on April 5, 2013, Greentech suddenly announced that he had resigned as president of the company – four months before, on Dec. 1. Watchdog.org reported that for months after his supposed Dec. 1 resignation, McAuliffe continued to represent himself as the company’s president. The Inspector General’s report shows that McAuliffe contacted Mayorkas to discuss Greentech twice after that Dec. 1 resignation, on Feb. 4 and Feb. 18, 2013.

Greentech filed an $85 million libel suit against Watchdog.org April 8, 2013.

But McAuliffe was not alone in leaning on Mayorkas. The Inspector General’s report also says Anthony Rodham, Hillary Clinton’s brother and head of the company that solicited EB-5 investors for Greentech, “emailed Mr. Mayorkas about delays in processing petitions. Mr. Mayorkas forwarded the email to the staff with a ‘high importance’ designation.”

The report says, “Throughout the time period of the events we reviewed, Anthony Rodham was listed as the Chief Executive Officer of Gulf Coast,” Greentech’s EB-5 fundraising arm.

Watchdog.org’s investigation found that Bill Clinton had lent his support to the politically connected company.

The report says Mayorkas overruled his staff on two other requests for special treatment of foreign investors. When unnamed but “politically prominent stakeholders” contacted him, Mayorkas overruled his staff on “a proposal to fund a series of Sony movie projects in Los Angeles.” The Inspector General also found that Mayorkas intervened to expedite applications for foreign investors in a Las Vegas hotel and casino. That request came from then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

The IG’s 97-page report says politics pervaded decision-making at the agency.

“USCIS staff knew that Mr. Mayorkas was communicating with applicants and other stakeholders outside established USCIS policy; they also understood that these applicants were prominent or politically connected,” the report says. “After this communication, staff witnessed Mr. Mayorkas inserting himself in unprecedented ways into an adjudicative process governed by statute, regulation, and USCIS policy. As a result of his deviation from the normal process, applicants and stakeholders with whom he had just been in contact received a specific benefit.”

The IG found that “[m]any employees concluded, not unreasonably, that the pressure exerted on them was because the individuals involved were politically connected.”

Mayorkas said the assists he gave McAuliffe, Rodham, Reid and others “typified my hands-on leadership approach.”

“I could have taken a far easier path as the director of USCIS, assumed a more ceremonial role, traveled far and wide on trips of interest, and enjoyed the perks,” he said in a written response to the IG that is included in the final report. “Instead, I worked tirelessly and tackled the agency’s biggest challenges. Conquering those were the greatest chance of realizing my, and the public’s, aspirations for an agency of excellence and integrity.”

The EB-5 Regional Center Program is up for congressional reauthorization this year. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the committee of jurisdiction, Grassley said he is considering whether the program should be extended, and, if so, what safeguards are critical to national security.

http://watchdog.org/208190/investiga...-house-allies/