SCOOP: Gallego Bill Targets Affordable Housing Crisis With Foreign Investor Cash
Move comes as Trump’s proposed Gold Card program would siphon cash from job-creating EB-5 investments.
CAPITOL HILL — Senator Ruben Gallego is trying to rescue a piece of America’s EB-5 investor visa program before the Trump administration kills it off entirely.
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On Tuesday, Arizona Democrat introduced the “Building Housing for the American Dream Act” this week, a bill that would redirect foreign capital from the embattled EB-5 program into affordable housing construction, according to a draft of the legislation reviewed by Migrant Insider. The final bill text is not yet online.
Gallego’s bill would be a lifeline for a visa category that threatens to be systematically undermined by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s competing “Gold Card” scheme.
The timing isn’t subtle. While Lutnick claims to have conjured $5 billion in Gold Card sales that Treasury can’t seem to locate, Gallego’s bill offers a counter-vision: put immigrant investor money to work building housing Americans can actually afford to live in.
“We thank Sen. Gallego for his commitment to working on creative solutions to solve the nation’s housing affordability problem,” said Ishaan Khanna of the American Immigrant Investor Alliance (AIIA), which helped draft the legislation.
Why Affordable Housing Can’t Get EB-5 Money
Here’s the problem Gallego is trying to fix: Under current rules, affordable housing projects require investors to pony up $1.05 million per visa, compared to $800,000 for projects in targeted rural or high-unemployment areas. That extra $250,000 makes affordable housing a harder sell to foreign investors, even though these projects desperately need the capital.
It’s a perverse incentive structure. The places that need affordable housing most—cities where workers are competing for limited units and zoning laws strangle construction—are the same places where EB-5 investment thresholds are highest.
Gallego’s bill, according to the draft document, would create a new “Infrastructure and Housing” category within EB-5, allowing affordable housing projects to access the lower $800,000 investment tier. Projects would have to qualify under existing federal housing programs: Section 202 housing for seniors, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Community Development Block Grants, HOME Investment Partnerships, and similar initiatives.
The bill would also require HUD to help USCIS vet projects—a recognition that the immigration agency has struggled to oversee EB-5 investments in the past.
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Competing Visions: Gallego and Lutnick
The proposal arrives as the EB-5 program faces an existential threat from Lutnick’s Gold Card, which purports to offer permanent residency for a $1 million payment directly to the U.S. government—no job creation required, no investment in actual businesses, just a straight cash transfer.
Lutnick has called previous EB-5 projects “poorly overseen” and “poorly executed.” The Gold Card represents the Trump administration’s preferred alternative: immigration as pure revenue generator for the Treasury, stripped of any pretense about job creation or economic development.
But as Migrant Insider previously reported, Lutnick’s claimed $5 billion in Gold Card sales has never materialized in Treasury accounts. His boast of selling 1,000 cards in a single day—March 19—would represent the most lucrative day in U.S. immigration history, if it actually happened. Seven months later, the money remains missing.
The Gold Card program is nowhere to be found, either, as such a program would have to be created by Congress. Whether Lutnick knows that he cannot simply create a new visa category out of thin air remains unknown, but investor visa experts say Lutnick was almost surely lying about the thousand Gold Cards he claims to have sold.
Meanwhile, the EB-5 program faces reauthorization in September 2027. The Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 protects investors who file before September 30, 2026, but anyone filing after that date has no guarantee their application will be processed if Congress lets the program expire.
AIIA has expressed concern that the Trump administration won’t support reauthorization, given the Gold Card’s positioning as a revenue generator. “Unlike EB-5 investments which flow into private projects and may be recoverable, the Gold Card represents a direct ‘gift’ to the Commerce Department that generates immediate revenue for the Treasury,” AIIA noted in its statement supporting Gallego’s bill.
What’s at Stake
Federal affordable housing programs (Section 202, LIHTC, CDBG, HOME) have generated millions for construction but consistently face funding gaps. Gallego’s bill tries to fill that gap with foreign capital while preserving EB-5’s core requirement: investments must create American jobs.
Each EB-5 investor must create or preserve at least 10 full-time positions for U.S. workers. The investment must remain “at risk” throughout the conditional residence period—no guaranteed returns, no buyback agreements.
Housing construction is labor-intensive. Connect it to EB-5, and you’re talking about mobilizing foreign capital for projects that simultaneously address the housing shortage and generate employment.
“Senator Gallego recognizes that affordable housing is essential for the 21st century but the problem has always been these types of projects despite their need do not qualify for the lower investment amount and are thus unable to attract foreign investors,” Khanna said.
The bill would require annual reporting to Congress on visas issued and projects funded under the housing provisions.
MY TAKE: Gallego’s definitely on to something here. To be clear, his bill faces long odds in a Republican-controlled Senate, let alone an increasingly dysfunctional House prone to long absences from the Capitol — particularly with the Trump administration actively promoting the Gold Card as EB-5’s replacement.
But politically, the legislation stakes out clear contrast: one vision uses immigrant investment to build housing and create jobs; the other treats immigration as a cash-shakedown mechanism for the Treasury. With the 2026 grandfathering deadline approaching and reauthorization looming in 2027, the EB-5 community is watching to see whether Congress will choose job-creating investments over Lutnick’s bullshit billions in Gold Card sales.
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