Jared Kushner — and other developers — use gerrymandering to supply visa to foreigners at a big discount, according to a new report.
“It stands before you like a beacon. This is Jersey City like you’ve never seen it before. This is Trump Bay Street,” the website reads.
A model of this immigration loophole can be found at 65 Bay Street, in Jersey City and just a 17-minute subway ride to the World Trade Center, PBS Newshour reported. Trump Bay Street was developed by Kushner Companies, the real estate firm of President Trump’s son-in-law, with POTUS lending his name to the licensing.
“The amenity spaces feature furnishings by the luxury brand RH,” the website continues. “From the pool to the chef’s table to the observation deck on the 52nd floor, all areas have been curated to elevate the residential experience.”
2 MONTHS OFF & waived fees @ Trump Bay Street in #JerseyCity. Don’t miss out! Studio-3Bed layouts from $2,795. https://t.co/SRoyKEeM9u … pic.twitter.com/gz7URyp9wD
— CityRealty (@CityRealtyNY) April 19, 2017
The experience is also elevated by EB-5 visas for foreign investors. Any American investor can apply for the visa on behalf of a foreign investor and most cases are legitimate, according to PBS.
For a $1 million investment, the investors get permanent U.S. residency for themselves and for family members under the age of 21 as long as the investment creates at least 10 jobs in America. For rural areas or a “target employment area” with an unemployment rate 1.5 times higher than the national average, the price of the visa is slashed in half.
Investors are also promised a return on their investment, because that’s how investing works. The project either turns a profit or it doesn’t.
But the area around Trump Bay Street isn’t impoverished. “In fact, when the developer applied for permission to solicit foreign EB-5 investors, the unemployment rate in this census tract was a mere 3.1 percent, more than 1.5 times below the national unemployment rate, not 1.5 times above it,” the business and economic corespondant for PBS Newshour Paul Solman wrote. “So Kushner Companies drew up a ‘targeted employment area’ of 15 additional neighborhoods — ‘census tracts’ that extended south into the very poorest and most dangerous parts of Jersey City.”
For more on how many jobs Kushner’s development and investors created, watch PBS Newshour’s report.
