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Article: Let's sell more U.S. visas.(creativity in business)
- Article from:
- The American Enterprise
- Article date:
- March 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 The American Enterprise, a national magazine of politics, business and culture (TEAmag.com). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"We've done great on boat people. I see no problem with a few yacht people," quipped Harold Ezell, an Immigration and Naturalization Service official. Ezell was referring to the provision in the Immigration Act of 1990 that set up the so-called "foreign investor visa program." The plan was to allot 10,000 green cards (out of the 700,000 visas issued annually) to foreign entrepreneurs who were willing to invest at least $1 million in a business in the United States--the first time in American history that visas would be "sold" to immigrants.
This idea of "selling" visas has long been championed by free-market economists as a good way to benefit both immigrants ...