EB5 Investors Magazine "Top 25 Awards Edition" Volume 8 Issue 1 | Page 61

TOP AT TORNEYS IN SPECIALIZED FIELDS
H. RONALD KLASKO
ATTORNEYS IN SPECIALIZED
FIELDS
EB5 INVESTORS
MAGAZINE
H
. Ronald Klasko leads the E-2
and EB-5 Investors Team at
Klasko Immigration Law Partners.
They have represented thousands
of investors, over 50 regional
centers, and many developers.
Klasko currently chairs AILA’s Administrative Litigation Task
Force and served five terms as chair of AILA’s EB-5 Committee.
He is also a former national president and general counsel of
AILA. He is the only person twice honored with the AILA
Founders Award for his contributions to immigration law. He has
been selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America© for over
two decades. He is the North American Representative of the
Investment Migration Council.
HOW DO YOU THINK THE EB-5
PROGRAM SHOULD BE REFORMED
WHEN IT IS UP FOR RENEWAL IN
JUNE?
The regional center program must be renewed by June 30 or it
will expire. The pending legislation to extend the program for 5
years has some provisions with which I agree and some with
which I disagree. My most important objections relate to one
inclusion and one exclusion. The provision included is a
restriction on judicial review of EB-5 applications unless
administrative remedies are exhausted. This exists nowhere
else in immigration law. The main exclusion is the failure to
include quota relief, meaning that EB-5 quota backlogs will
continue unabated. Either the number should be increased or
derivatives should not be counted.
WHAT NEW TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING
IN THE EB-5 INDUSTRY ESPECIALLY
WITH THE IMPACT OF COVID-19?
Interest among investors substantially diminished since the
investment amount was increased to $900,000/$1.8 million.
Delays in petition adjudications are worsening, resulting in
increasing number of mandamus complaints filed in federal
court. In many cases, the only way to get an adjudication is by
filing a mandamus. Regional center terminations are increasing
for a variety of reasons. The next year will likely see litigation
addressing the impact of regional center terminations on
investors. Regional centers are struggling to decipher and
comply with USCIS policy on redeployment of investor funds. In
some cases, they are litigating USCIS policy or lack of policy.
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