Moore: Let’s attract the best and brightest to U.S.

Situated on the outskirts of Sacramento is California s largest master-planned group McClellan Park It has homes offices restaurants a hotel and even a -mile-long runway that serves jets But years ago the location was a starkly different story an Air Force base that had just been shuttered costing jobs Fundamental to this remarkable transformation was a federal campaign that incentivizes venture and stimulates job creation throughout the United States That plan the EB- Immigrant Investor Effort still exists in current times And amid uncertainty across the financial sector and in the financial markets Republicans and Democrats alike should come together to help the venture s expansion EB- was created by Congress in to attract capital financing from foreign investors It s more than met that objective with a track record of attracting billions of foreign direct assets and creating millions of new U S jobs all at no cost to American taxpayers The plan truly helps reduce the federal deficit In exchange for bringing capital to the United States with the minimum amount of roughly million and less if the financing is in a rural or high-unemployment area and creating jobs at least EB- investors can get one of the majority prized commodities anywhere in the world an American green card McClellan Park is just one of several EB- success stories The scheme was also critical to the transformation of Norton Air Force base which closed in The base became San Bernardino International Airport and in the modern day it s one of Amazon s eight air hubs in the United States but the only one in California The Amazon hub operates - hours per day and employs thousands Contrary to what particular believe fraud has never run rampant through the project An study of pending applications in determined that fewer than of them were fraudulent or a threat to national protection according to a overview by the Leadership Accountability Office But in March Sen Chuck Grassley was the architect of rule to tighten the integrity of the EB- The law ensures that all elements of the initiative are in compliance with U S immigration law helps prevent fraud and provides tools to investigate it when it s suspected Along these lines federal personnel investigate the backgrounds of the investors and the source of an immigrant s outlay capital to ensure it came from lawful sources and through lawful means Since the Grassley rule became law in there s been a gusher of EB- capital entering the United States from abroad Nearly billion of EB- capital has been spread across more than states with much of the money going toward projects in rural and high-unemployment areas It has generated billions of dollars in follow-on expenditure and created more than jobs in urban high-unemployment areas and more than rural jobs One impactful rural example is the Big River Steel plant in Osceola Arkansas The project is the largest private expenditure in Arkansas s history and one of the most of technologically advanced scrap-recycling steel production facilities in the world The catalytic impact of this plant alone has produced more than billion in follow-on manufacturing assets and thousands of high-paying jobs in this historically distressed region again at no cost to the U S taxpayer The Trump administration has proposed a smart complement to the EB- project Colloquially known as the gold card immigrants could purchase the right to U S permanent residence in exchange for a million contribution to the U S Treasury Do the math If we allow in a year we raise billion over a decade Has there ever been a better way to soak the rich There are other countries that offer permanent residency or citizenship in exchange for investments or contributions The EB- undertaking and the gold card are synergistic Both will contribute to deficit reduction and the strength of the American economic system Talented entrepreneurs will flock to the United States starting businesses employing Americans and paying taxes Companies will also have an opportunity to purchase gold cards to allocate to people they want to hire Doing so would strengthen the American financial system by making our businesses more dynamic and paying down the deficit at the same time What s not to like about that President Donald Trump can take a long-overdue step to boost the EB- undertaking s prospective by issuing an executive order that stops counting spouses and children of investors against the annual visa allocation They were never supposed to be included in the visa totals and this change could triple EB- s quota Chosen complain that this campaign allows millionaires and billionaires to buy their way past the Statue of Liberty Wrong It s just a smart way to put America first We can still take the normal immigrant flow family and work-based visas and bring in the rich and exceptionally talented Given the reduction in U S birth rates and the aging of our society we need talented immigrants now more than ever They don t take jobs they create them And if they come and help invent a cure for cancer or start the next Google they enrich the whole world Trump is right that the EB- project and making gold cards a reality are smart programs that put America first Stephen Moore is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation He is also an economic advisor to the Trump campaign His new book coauthored with Arthur Laffer is The Trump Economic Miracle