The Government Accountability Office, the investigative branch of Congress, found last year in a general report about the EB-5 program that many applications contained a high risk of fraud, and discovered cases of counterfeit documentation. State Department officials told the GAO that there is “no reliable method to verify the source of the funds of petitioners.”

Giresi of US Immigration Fund says his firm uses “very stringent compliance programs” with a “great amount of due diligence” to look into the background of prospective investors, including hiring private investigators.

Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican who is chairman of the judiciary committee, last month cited a memo from Homeland Security saying that EB-5 visa holders do not clear the same hurdles as other immigrants, like proof of education and work qualifications. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said at the hearing that while he has supported EB-5 over the years, "If the program is to continue, it must be reformed."

Last spring, a Homeland Security special agent testified that EB-5 applicants from China, Russia, Pakistan and Malaysia "had been approved in as little as 16 days, with files lacking basic law enforcement queries." And a report last year by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General found politically connected participants may have received favorable treatment, citing projects involving Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and Hillary Clinton’s brother, Tony Rodham.

A spokesman for Governor McAuliffe said the report demonstrates that he, “along with many other bipartisan individuals and businesses," asked Homeland Security "to fulfill its obligation to adjudicate the applications that were before them in a timely fashion.”

Rodham said in a phone interview that his interaction with Homeland Security was appropriate.

High-Profile Developments

The visa program was intended to create jobs in economically distressed areas but has often turned into a source of financing for high-profile developments in prosperous neighborhoods, such as Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and Manhattan’s Hudson Yards. Audrey Singer, a Brookings fellow, says data collected through the program makes it impossible to track how many jobs get created.

Visas have become an issue in the Trump campaign although he hasn’t addressed the EB-5 program. He has acknowledged using temporary visas for workers at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. He says he wants to eliminate what he calls "rampant, widespread" abuse of temporary visas for skilled workers and is committed to "institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program."

Trump himself has built few buildings in the past two decades. Instead, developers who want to use the name pay him a licensing fee. A Kushner spokeswoman, Risa Heller, declined to comment on the specific arrangement in Jersey City with Trump’s son-in-law. She said, "The money was raised lawfully by the US Immigration Fund consistent with all the requirements of EB-5. This program enabled a development that created hundreds of new jobs in an area with employment needs.”