INS Abuse
Timmerman, Kenneth R.
n the early morning hours of August 26, 1998, ~\cnP, armed federal agents burst into a six-story' brick and glass office building at ~3873 Park Center Road in Herndon, Virginia, scaring the wits...
...In support of Clinton's turnaround, Bach then gave Congress the fake immigration figures...
...But the fact other federal agencies had joined INS in the raid, including the State Department and the FBI, makes "it safe to assume that this case goes beyond just immigration matters," Bergeron said...
...Some of ~he intruders had fircman's axes and crowbars and werc moving toward the glass doors of an adjoining office suite when a second cmployee arrived at the scene and offered to let tl~em in...
...extended citizenship to between zoo,o0o and 3oo,ooo foreign nationals per year...
...Morrison failed in his attempt to unseat Connecticut Gov...
...Among them were six Lippo Bank officials, according to a lawsuit filed last December by Interbank founders James O'Connor and James A. Geisler...
...In one court case brought against the INS by a Hawaii company and a Chinese investor named Xanxuan Zou, the INS noted that the investment programs "appeared to be contrary to the immigrant investor regulations...
...Within four months, we went from 800 employees down to twenty...
...Representatives Mel Levine, Howard Berman, and Harry Reid to write letters to the INS on her behalf...
...While the court never asked her to elaborate on her reference to China, or to specify foreign investors she had attracted, a review of Federal Election Commission records shows that several Lippo Group employees began contributing substantial sums to the DNC and other Democratic campaigns in late 1992 , just as the investor visa program kicked in...
...We believe the EB- 5 visa category was set up to funnel Lippo money to the Clinton-Gore campaign," O'Connor says...
...Court documents and public records show that the company ran a program called "Invest in America," which sought to attract foreign ] investors to the United States...
...When the INS subsequently became more favorable to Hsia and Horn and their clients, // the report states, "the message was not lost on Hsia that political contacts and political fundraising could indeed pay her concrete dMdends...
...The risk, Gore warned, ,~l was that"we might be publicly criticized for running a proDemocrat voter mill and even risk having Congress stop us...
...In addition to the "hard" money raised directly for the Gore campaign, Hsia and her friends made sure that $29,500 in soft money they had donated to the DSCC was "tallied" to Gore's hard money accounts for his 199o U.S...
...and the tele-markefing company in West Virginia...
...The INS had not come to snatch bodies, but fo seize documents...
...Prior to 1993, the U.S...
...With Huang's memo in hand, Clinton lobbied members of Congress to withdraw the measure he had been supporting just one week earlier...
...In a separate document, the director of the INS office in Fresno, California, notifies the union local president that he may have to ask employees to work overtime...
...The INS froze some 2oo visa applications that Interbank had submitted in support of these investments, and secretly began gathering evidence for a criminal prosecution...
...The American Spectator _9 July~August ~ooo 43 As the day wore on, INS Special Agent Elizabeth M. Goyer, who was in charge of the raid, had to rent two additional trucks from Budget, which her team packed to the brim...
...And politicians such as Rockefeller and West Virginia Rep...
...She also met Fong-Eu's son, Matthew Fong, who handled his mother's fundraising and subsequently succeeded her as Galifornia secretary of state, hr a deposition, Horn recalled that Hsia "offered to take over the fund-raising activity...
...I was sitting on the California Economic Commission, which gave me a lot of exposure and to draw more investors to come into this country...
...Their target was Interbank Group, Inc., a financial services company that employed 4o lawyers in addition to architects, engineers, and computer programmers in Herndon, and had manufacturing and telemarketing projects in California, Nevada, and West Virginia...
...Bruce Morrison, and Hsia cultivated him assiduously...
...Perhaps he'll have an opportunity to ask Doris Meissner about her dealings, if any, with John Huang, Lippo, and the DNC...
...q'hcv were running around shouting "All clear section this...
...When Congress howled abuse, the INS put on the brakes, approving "only" 598,2z5 new U.S...
...Could Maria Hsia have arranged for them to enter the United States on the new visa program...
...46 July~August 20 oo ' The American Spectator pened to that county...
...Rep...
...Hsia called in her chits soon enough, lobbying Gore, Dasehle, Simon, and Barbara Mikulski to pass the Immigration Act of 199o...
...As early as 1983, the report states, Hsia and her partner Howard Hom "persuaded U.S...
...residency or citizenship requirements, but not to any of these Lippo employees...
...But the way the law was written, cle for making campaign contributions, because "campaign contributions are not within our jurisdiction...
...The three agreed to set up and finance a trip to Asia by Senator Gore in January 1989 , using an account they controlled jointly at Riady's own Bank of Trade (later known as LippoBank...
...Still known in the Mandarin-speaking community by her Chinese name, Hsia Ling, she became a naturalized U.S...
...After the 1988 elections and the defeat of such PLC backed figures as Michael Dukakis and Leo McCarthy, the group was seeking ways to maximize its political influence in Washington...
...I What had Interbank done to earn the ire of the INS...
...There is no question I was interested in working on immigration matters when I left office," Morrison says, "but I never discussed business with Maria Hsia until after the Immigration Bill was passed" in October 199 o. Asked whether he had met Lippo employees during his Asian trips for Hsia, Morrison hesitated...
...But Hsia's real claim to fame came later, when she was exposed as the organizer of the now-famous Hsi Lai Buddhist temple fundraiser in April 1996 for Vice President Al Gore...
...If the INS and the IRS press criminal charges and win, he could also be spending the next twenty years in jail...
...INS spokesman Russ Bergeron said his agency had never looked into the possibility that Lippo was.using the EB- 5 visa program as a vehiBy Maria Hsia's own account, the investor visa program generated major new business for her, as she explained in August 16, 1995 court testimony as part of her lawsuit against her former partner and lover, Howard Horn: I was the one working on this new piece of immigration bill [sic], which contains expanding more categories for business peop]e coming to this country, setting up branch office, transfer their executives, also there's new provision for million-dollar investments...
...The mandate of the grand jury that granted the INS search warrant expired in December x999, but was extended another six months at the government's request_ Still, I as we go to press, no charges have been filed...
...citizenship...
...Here again, DNC fundraiser John Huang listed his residence as "Jakarta, ZZ," later changing it to Los Angeles...
...Within days, he signed a $1%ooo per month consulting contract with Maria Hsia to help her pursue clients under the new investor immigrant provision of the 199o law...
...March 27, 2000, District Court Judge Gerald B. Lee granted Interbank the right to limited discovery...
...Jay Rockefeller, the West Virginia Democrat who had championed Interbank's Invest in America plan to create several thousand new jobs in his state...
...jobs, whose business has been frozen by the INS...
...It was clear to us that the idea for Citizenship USA came from the Vice President's off• a top committee aide to]d TAS...
...9 Charles de Queljoe, the president of Los Angeles-based Lippo Securities, made his first campaign contribution on December 17, 1993, a $25,00o check to the DNC...
...And also China has newly opened the matter in 1992 since we have so many activities involving Asia...
...Her interest in political activity was heavily mercenary: It provided her with contacts and friends in government circles in ways that she believed helped her immigration services business...
...But by carl}'1988 , the i ~ two were close enough to jointly establish the Pacific Leadership Council (PLC), which funneled money from wealthy Asian-Americans to select Democratic senators, including then-presidential hopeful Senator A1 Gore, Jr...
...In the affidavit she filed with a federal judge to obtain the search warrant, Goyer alleged there was "probable cause to believe that Interbank and its related entities are per- { meated with fraud," but she reassured the judge that the INS would behave in a judicious manner...
...They weren't expecting resistance...
...9 Agus Setiawan, another LippoBank employee, began giving to the DNC in March 1993 and donated a total of $6,ooo, none of which was returned...
...In a thank-you note to Hsia dated two days later, Gore reminded her that his failed presidential campaign "has delayed my efforts to raise money for the 199o campaign and left our coffers empty for the upcoming race...
...Initially, the INS saw nothing wrong either...
...In response to TAS questions, INS spokesman Russ Bergeron said the INS had "executed a criminal search warrant issued by a federal judge...
...Among the new Lippo donors: _9 Felix Ma, who began contributing to the DNC just ten days before the 1992 elections, with a string of $5,ooo checks to three state parties (Michigan, Missouri, Ohio...
...On March 28, 1996, aide Doug Farbrother e-mailed a memo to Gore detailing his efforts to get the INS to waive existing regulations, "to make me confident the}: could produce a million new citizens before election day...
...Several monks and nuns from the Hsi Lai Temple attended the May 21, 1989 event, which raised nearly $2o,ooo for Gore...
...For James O'Connor : ~ i and his partners, news of INS politicization comes as little solace...
...Jesse Helms), $43,5 ~ for the California State Democratic Central Committee and related PACs, and $29,500 to the U.S...
...The group had initially hoped to invite five U.S...
...I was in Welch, WV, in McDowell County on a freezingcold day when they announced they were going to create 4~176 new jobs," Rockefeller said when fellow Democrats sought to abolish the investor visa program in May 1998...
...n the early morning hours of August 26, 1998, ~\cnP, armed federal agents burst into a six-story' brick and glass office building at ~3873 Park Center Road in Herndon, Virginia, scaring the wits out of the lone employee who had arrived early to work...
...9 The most prolific of these new Lippo donors was Kenneth R. Wynn, who gave $56,0oo between July 1994 and December 1995...
...Morrison was planning to leave Congress to run for governor of Connecticut that November, so Hsia and her partners at the PLC threw a fundraiser for him on April 20, 199o , at the Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, California...
...On I April 30, the group hosted a pair offundraisers for Gore, and followed up three weeks later with a $250 per person event for Gore at the California home of PLC founding member Tina Bow...
...They wheeled out whole file cabinets, ripped the wires from computers and dulnped them in the trucks, for good measure empb'ing ~vo additional office suites in the same building that were not listed on the search warrant, in clear violation of the 4th Amendment...
...As you must be aware, the INS has been told to naturalize everyone who filed form W-4oo prior to April 1,1996, in time for them to register to vote in the November election...
...In a show of diligence, Coyer visited the address listed by Interbank as the site of its tele-marketing service, and found it to be an unoccupied office suite...
...A failed 1988 presidential bid had depleted Gore's war chest, and he was 44 July~August 2o o o _9 The American Spectator up for re-election in 199o...
...This was considered the best news that had ever hapof West Virginia in precisely the kinds of places where nobody else will go to invest...
...But these were agents of the hnmigration and Naturalization Service, the Justice Department agency that processes visa and citizenship applications...
...The reason Riady so readily dipped into corporate funds was simple, the Senate investigators found: From the Lippo's immigration agenda: Senators Al Gore, Paul Simon, and Tom Daschle...
...Senate campaign, a practice whose legality has come under fire...
...Given Hsia's extensive relationship with Lippo, her involvement in the illegal campaign finance scheme, and the allegations by federal law enforcement officials that she had been working as an agent for Communist China, O'Connor's claim that she used the investor visa program to obtain green cards on behalf of Lippo employees so they could funnel money to the DNC was convincing enough to prompt a federal judge to allow Interbank to proceed with its lawsuit...
...ZZ" was the abbreviation used to indicate a non-U.S, location...
...We couldn't pay suppliers, because they seized all the invoices...
...they weren't even planning to make arrests...
...We were very hopeful that Interbank could deliver on the promise of creating jobs in an economically distressed area of West Virginia," the senator's spokesman told TAS in a faxed statement...
...Structured as a limited partnership, Invest in America sold shares to potential immigrants for $1oo,o0o or $z5o,ooo in cash, arranging for loans from a Canadian bank to make up the rest of the $5oo,ooo investment required by the Immigration Act...
...2dl clear section that!' It was \ er...
...They are looking, in fact, at putting lo, 12,15,ooo jobs across the State Not All Saints So was the INS seeking to shut down the entire investor visa program, as O'Connor and Interbank claim, to cover the traces of illegal campaign contributions to the DNC by Lippo and the Riadys...
...To this day, neither the INS nor federal prosecutors have filed charges against the company or its principals...
...Hsia worked as a legal aide for a Los Angeles lawyer named Howard Horn, who for nearly a decade was also her lover and housemate...
...It bears noting that John .~ .. Huang had a direct line to INS Commissioner Doris...
...Twenty-two months later, Interbank principal James O'Connor told T/KS, less than 5 percent of the documents seized have been returned, while eight of the computers containing corporate records were destroyed...
...But by far the biggest recipient was the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which took in $225,ooo from PLC donors and redistributed the money to top supporters of Lippo's Friend, At Gore mr It remains unclear how Maria Hsia initially made U the acquaintance of James Riady, the son of Lippo Group boss Moehtar Riady...
...Senate campaign of California Lt...
...The first PLC-organized event was held on April 22, 1988, at Riady's house in Los Angeles and raised Sno,0oo, ostensibly from 16 contributors...
...Either Agent Goyer deliberately lied under oath or the documents were deliberately withheld from her and her team;' he wrote in his complaint...
...Introducing Morrison at that $3oo per person event was another Hsia ally, California Democrat Howard Berman...
...But if the INS is so concerned about the probity of immigration consultants, why has it never investigated Maria Hsia...
...Interbank says that because of the INS raid, which destroyed its business, most of the money is now gone...
...Although he lived in Rancho Palos Verde, California, Ma initially listed his employer as LippoBank, Hong Kong...
...On the Hong Kong leg, Hsia had set up meetings for Gore with the head of the official Xinhua News Agency, whom she identified as the "equivalent to PRC ambassador," and the head of China Resources, a company identified by U.S...
...So the actual opportunity is coming in '92 , '93, '94, for the future...
...The INS refused to comment, claiming that such information was protected under the PrivacyAct...
...Consider this: The investor visa was the brainchild of an obscure Chinese-American named Maria Hsia...
...Basing these allegations on classified U.S...
...In a subsequent decision document for Clinton, Gore states: "You asked us to expedite the naturalization of nearly a million legal aliens who have applied to become citizens...
...Every effort will be made ~ 42 July~August 2000 " The American Spectator to return seized items which are not determined to be evidence in a reasonable amount of time," she said...
...E\en so, they broke door fiames and locks, and smashed through the ceiling to breach a locked interior door...
...Guns draw~, flashing a search warrant, the reds pushed z6-vear-old Walter Kcll\ up against the wall at~d frisked him, then fanned out across the sprawling office suite...
...Meissner to make Lippo's ,~, :i:i concerns known: her husr~y: [~ band, Charles Meissner, who k:~*, was Huang's boss at the ~ ~ Commerce Department...
...After an initial meeting with Gore at the Geo'rgetown home of Democratic fundraiser Pamela Harriman, Hsia wrote Gore's office on November zz, 1988 to explain details of the Asia trip...
...She sent her letter to the attention of Gore's top fundraiser, Peter Knight...
...In a March 20,1989 memo to other PLC members, obtained by Senate investigators, Hsia outlined an upcoming trip to Los Angeles by Senators Paul Simon and Tom Dasehle...
...Over the next fourteen months, he gave $23,5oo to various Democratic candidates...
...Not long after her success in getting the investor visa program added to the Immigration Act, she and Horn separated and subsequently sued each other in Los Angeles civil court, with Horn accusing her of attempting to steal the lucrative immigrant business from him...
...That raid killed our business...
...Hsia ultimately paid Morrison $49,686.35 for these services...
...Wynn was variously listed as working for LippoBank, the Lippo Group, and Lippo Land Ltd...
...And now they are looking at others...
...A congressional investigation never determined whether Bach took his instructions from the White House, or from his political superiors at the INS...
...Lamar Smith has promised hearings on the investor visa program, out of concern for new immigrants who have come to the United States with their families and now find that the INS has changed the rules in midstream...
...The business was lucrative: Although she was not a lawyer and had no formal legal training, Hsia declared income of $637,ooo in 1982, according to court records...
...If so, the INS may have bitten off more than it can chew...
...Along with Horn, she attended her first political fundraiser in 1982, where she met March Fong-Eu, an Asian-&neriean woman then serving as California secretary of state...
...According to a donor list uncovered by Senate investigators, several of these contributors were unable to meet the steep fund-raising requirement imposed by the PLC, so Riady instructed his subordinate, John Huang, to use LippoBank funds to make up the shortfall...
...intelligence analysts as a front for Chinese military intelligence operations...
...Morrison was subsequently appointed by President Clinton as chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board, where he remains...
...Before Bach cooked the books, President Clinton publicly supported a reduction in the number of legal immigrants...
...But the DNC never followed suit, despite the fact that DNC fundraiser John Huang carelessly logged de Queljoe's place of residence as "Jakarta, ZZ...
...In its final report on the campaign finance scandals, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee said it had learned that Hsia "has been an agent of the Chinese government, that she has acted knowingly in support of it, and that she has attempted to conceal her relationship with the Chinese government...
...People don't tell us why they choose to naturalize at a particular time...
...He -~ later died in the Dubrovnik i _9 ~ air disaster that also took the j ~ [ ~ : ~ :, lifeofCommerceSecretaryRon Brown...
...That didn't sit well with Sen...
...Governor Leo McCarthy, a political ally and benefactor who had appointed Hsia to several state commissions...
...Less than three months later, Interbank and Invest in America were in trouble...
...Gore thanked her for "crediting my DSCC tally" with those cheeks in a letter dated January 31,1989...
...As the congressional investigations into campaign finance violations picked up speed in late ]997, the Interbank complaint alleges, the administration and INS Director Doris Meissner "developed a scheme to shut down the EB- 5 visa category," inadvertently dragging Interbank down with the ship...
...Until recently, when Interbank and a few other private companies , came on the scene, only a few hundred foreigners had taken advantage of the program...
...A federal jury ultimately convicted Maria Hsia of laundering money for the DNC in March 20o0...
...Citizenship USA wasn't the on/}' instance where political appointees at the INS played with the law...
...That was the genesis of how fund-raising got started with Maria...
...She began working for local law firms specializing in immigration matters, bringing in Asian clients seeking to acquire residence permits or U.S...
...As the day wore on, INS Special Agent Elizabeth M. Goyer, who was in charge of the raid, had to rent two additional trucks from Budget, which her team packed to the brim...
...Accordingly, on The American Spectator _9 J~ l y/Augu s t 2 o o o 45 The Clinton administration had lots to fear from congressional probing into the EB-5 visa program...
...According to Bach's numbers, the number of legal immigrants had decreased for two consecutive years...
...She began raising money for Gore in 1988, and took him to meet Lippo boss Mochtar Riady in Indonesia in January 1989...
...She had an intimate working relationship with James Riady and John Huang, and maintained multiple accounts with LippoBank that were used for DNC fundraising purposes and for her immigration business...
...Documents Congress obtained from Gore's office show that it repeatedly referred to Citizenship USA as a "pro-Democrat voter mill...
...If you decide to join this trip, I will persuave [sic] all my eolleagnes in the future to play a leader [sic] role in your future presidential race," Hsia wrote...
...Clinton approved Gore's efforts, and the INS sent a directive to its five main district offices a few days later, granting them "full authority to waive, suspend, or deviate from DOJ and INS non-statutor), policies, regulations, and procedures...
...Among the biggest recipients were the Democratic National Committee ($216,ooo), the North Carolina Democratic Victory committee ($5o,ooo earmarked to oppose the re-election of Sen...
...intimidatingdefinitely not ,,'our average day at the office...
...In other words, they passed the residency test, as befits persons who had entered the United States on investor visas...
...Only days before Congress had scheduled a key vote to reduce the number of immigrant visas in 1996, INS political appointee Robert Bach cooked the immigration numbers and caused a substantially false report to be released to Congress and the public, TAS has learned...
...senators to accompany 15 top Asian-American donors to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Indonesia, but in the end had to settle for just Gore...
...citizen in 1986...
...Nick Rahall were thrilled because of the potential impact on employment that Interbank brought...
...She had not only "laundered" campaign money to the DNC illegally, but in tandem with Lippo Bank official John Huang had sought "to identify non-U.S, citizens overseas who might contribute money to Democratic causes...
...Three new provisions of the bill were of particular interest to Hsia's immigration business and to Lippo: investor visas, family reunion, and a new visa category for "religious workers," such as the monks and nuns of the Hsi Lai Temple...
...Accordingly, Huang personally signed more than $3o,o0o in checks made out to Senator Barbara MikuIski (D-Maryland), the Fund for a Democratic Majorih,, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), covering pledges made by Lippo employees David Yeh and Ossy Tirta...
...The intent was to naturalize as many new voters as possible in preparation for the 1996 election...
...In my experience" Special Agent Goyer wrote to justify the raid, "immigration services and consultants frequently engage in filing fraudulent applications for immigration benefits or engage in selling fraudulent documents...
...Because the inquiry is ongoing, it remains a matter between federal investigators and the company...
...Actual regulation came out end of 1991...
...When Interbank launched the program in 1997, it quickly obtained INS approval for the first 43 investors...
...He refused to discuss the allegations against Interbank because it was an "ongoing case...
...O'Connor and his partners won't be getting any help from Senator Rockefeller either, who now considers them to be politically radioactive...
...Starting the day was a town hall meeting"with Senator Paul Simon regarding the New Immigration Reform Bill he _9 sponsored," followed by a $1,ooo per plate lunch...
...9 Joseph Sund, an employee with the LippoBank branch in New York, first shows up in FEC records in June 1993...
...That's what you do if you lose office if you're not independently wealthy," he told TAS, dismissing any suggestion of impropriety...
...Its actions against Interbank and others have generated a legal and regulatory mess, which has only begun to play itself out in the courts and in Congress...
...But O'Connor says Interbank filed papers with INS months earlier saying that the company had spread out to ten different sites in West Virginia and Virginia as the project grew, and that INS was simply acting in bad faith...
...The next day they had 1,5oo applicants from that county...
...companies that offered programs pooling foreign investments to create U.S...
...light manufacturing in Bakersfield, California...
...Congressional aides and INS officials now tell TAS that he reversed himself after receiving a February 1% 1996 memo from DNC fundaiser John Huang, who complained that the measure would erode Glinton's support among Asian-Americans...
...But the numbers have climbed again, with 872,485 new Americans approved in 1999...
...According to the Senate report, "it was her immigration work that helped propel Hsia into the political arena...
...the word traveled so fast...
...intelligence information and closed door testimony from law enforcement agencies, the report stated the committee "has also learned that Hsia has worked in direct support ofa PRC diplomatic post in the United States...
...We can't explain the extraordinary increase," says INS official Elaine Komis...
...We're going to be spend. ing a lot of time in court...
...Emanuel and DNC fundraiser Harold Ickes have refused to cooperate with an investigation into the pro- m jeer by the Justice Department Inspector General that has been underway for the past three years...
...KENNETH R. TIMMERMAN is a contributing editor for Reader's Digest and a frequent contributor to The American Spectator...
...Thanking Your Congressman The principal sponsor of the legislation on the House side was Rep...
...In her support affidavit for the August 1998 search warrant, INS Special Agent Elizabeth Coyer alleged that the company was engaging in fraud, citing a former Interbank employee who "told us that Interbank engages in no business other than qualifying alien clients for entrepreneur visas through its investment schemes...
...Among the defendants in the Interbank suit: Vice President A1 Gore...
...48 July~August 2 0 o o _9 The American Spectator...
...Over the next few years, the PLG would raise close to $1 million, according to a review of FEC records, distributing it to a stunning array of 29 House candidates, 43 Senate candidates, 6 state Democratic parties, and 17 national Democratic party committees and PACs...
...Those numbers leapt exponentially under Clinton-Gore, according to current INS statistics...
...This is what ultimately led Maria Hsia, James Riady, and John Huang to A1 Gore and the Democratic National Committee...
...After the 1996 elections, the INS corrected Bach's figures and published the true figures cited above...
...soil, as long as they fulfilled their investment requirements...
...Over the next eighteen months, Ma kicked in $44,5oo to various Democratic candidates and in soft money donations...
...The FEC database contains no record of contributions from him after October 1994 . _9 Tay Kim Tin and Susato Widjata similarly make a brief appearance as DNC donors starting in late 1992 , and together gave $7,5oo to Democrat campaigns...
...As it turned out, the INS needed tweng, agents just to cart offall the items they eventually impounded...
...Under a provision of the 199o I Immigration Act, foreign nationals who invest $1 million and create ten jobs in the United States ($5o%o00 in economically depressed areas) can jump the immigration line and receive visas to enter the U.S., which they can convert into permanent resident permits, or green cards, after two years once INS has verified their investment...
...New documents obtained by TAS show that the INS is planning to mint 1.2 million new citizens this year-again, just in time for the elections...
...Your contribution at the early stage of this effort has helped to replenish our account...
...Some of the $45,ooo he gave to Democratic candidates over the next three years was eventually returned, because the Lippo connection had become apolitical embarrassment...
...Under Citizenship USA, the INS processed unprecedented numbers of new immigrants, including illegal aliens who were granted amnesty overnight and inducted as citizens...
...Nothing wrong that I can see in that," Rockefeller told fellow senators on May zS, 1998 , "especially because in this program Interbank has pooled millions of dollars in foreign investments, millions of dollars to establish new operations...in exactly the kind of areas in West Virginia I was talking about...
...He then described "the pros and cons of several controversial actions that we could take to expedite processing," including "lower[ing] the standards for citizenship...
...A congressional subcommittee chaired by Texas Republican Lamar Smith subpoenaed thousands of e-mail messages between the INS and the office of Vice President A1 Gore relating to the program...
...This allowed the INS to argue successfully that there was no need for new legislation to limit immigration...
...Lowell Weieker, and left Congress in January 1991...
...So I believe it has more prospects in the future...
...The Men from Lippo thanks to Maria Hsia, ensured that new arrivals would be considered permanent residents- and thus legally flee to make campaign contributions-from the minute their feet touched U.S...
...The DNC returned contributions to dozens of other individuals not deemed to have met U.S...
...Tney took our employee records, so we had to reassemble all that information from scratch to meet our payroll...
...Interbank is only one of several U.S...
...In August 1999, Interbank Group filed for Chapter n protection...
...According to Carroll, the scheme was coordinated by White House adviser Rahm Emanuel, who "took midnight trips to INS Headquarters to meet with Doris Meissner about Citizenship USA...
...I just don't recall if there was anyone there from Lippo...
...Bom in Taiwan in 1951 , Hsia came to the United States on a student visa in 1973, and returned in ]975 to settle in Los Angeles...
...It was a very deliberate, premeditated plot...
...After the Asia trip, the relationship with Gore deepened...
...citizens in 1997, and fewer than The American Spectator _9 July~August 2ooo 47 473052 in 1998...
...From the show of force and the violence, it could have been a crack house raid scripted by "NYPD Blue...
...Senator Alan Cranston and U.S...
...very start, "the PLC was in large part a vehicle for the advancement of Lippo interests...
...Ma sent another $1o,ooo to the DSCC...
...These days I'm working out of my basement," O'Connor says...
...Before the EB- 5 visa category was established, Lippo had nothing to do with this industry...
...William J. Carroll, former district director for the INS Washington office based in Arlington, Virginia, told Interbank that in March 1996, INS directors were given "marching orders" by Mike Aytes at INS headquarters to push through as many new citizens as possible, even if no background checks were completed, adding fuel to the a/legations that Citizenship USA was used to mint new voters for the DNC...
...In return, Hsia and Horn raised money for their political campaigns...
...Obviously we became concerned about their operations when the govermnent launched an investigation...
...Enter Maria Hsia Clearly, the Clinton administration had lots to fear from congressional probing into the EB- 5 visa program...
...Pooling these funds, Interbank then invested the money in job-producing ventures in economically depressed areas: a house flaming business in Las Vegas...
...Congress did complain~but only after the election...
...The record of Maria Hsia's involvement in the campaign finance scandal is spelled out in minute detail in the Senate report and in several lawsuits...
...Since then, with their applications languishing at the INS, a half dozen Interbank clients have sued the company to recover the cash portion of their investment...
...Consider this: The investor visa was the brainchild of an obscure ChineseAmerican named Maria Hsia, who lobbied Congress extensively to get it included in the 199o Immigration Act...
...The best known example was its Citizenship USA program, launched just prior to the 1996 elections...
...The law authorized the INS to issue as many as lO,OOO EB- 5 investor visas per year...
...Armed with a sworn affidavit from a former INS official who claimed the INS was being used as a "surrogate fundraising arm of the Democratic National Committee," the pair alleges that the INS cracked down on their company as part of a broader Clinton administration conspiracy to cover up illegal campaign contributions to the DNC and prevent the appointment of an independent counsel...
...And at the time Howard's name getting more famous in the Democratic party [sic] and the government changed to a Democratic government, and so the bill was signed 199o...
...In 1996, just in time for the presidential elections, 1,o44,689 new Americans were minted by the INS...
...Hsia sent him to conduct "seminars" on the new law in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and to prepare a "treatise" on investor visa opportunities for potential Asian immigrants...
...In addition to tlne guns, they were all wearing cordless headsets," Kelly remembers...
...The only reason they supported creating the EB- 5 visa was to get their people admitted to the United States so they could get money to Clinton...
...I spoke to hundreds of people...
...Politicizing Immigration The INS has come under intense criticism from Congress for politicizing the immigration process...
Vol. 33 • July 2000 • No. 6
