City poised to accept $3 million more in EB-5 loans

(Source: Daily Press August 2, 2010) VICTORVILLE • The council is poised Tuesday night to accept six more loans of $500,000 each from foreign citizens through the federal EB-5 program, offering green cards in exchange for an investment that creates 10 local jobs. That’ll mean a total of 15 loans adding $7.5 million to the city’s coffers over the last 10 months, under a contract with developer Inland Energy to raise $25 million by October to help fund the city’s wastewater treatment plant. However, the city is still waiting to hear back from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as to whether its EB-5 program will be allowed to continue. In May, the agency issued a rare notice of “intent to terminate” Victorville’s regional center. The city sent a lengthy response to that notice in late June, and city officials said Monday that they hadn’t yet heard back as to whether they’d satisfactorily addressed the agency’s concerns regarding the “viability” of projects EB-5 money will help fund.