IG investigation of employee complaints regarding management of USCIS’ EB-5 program

USCIS personnel, including Mr. Mayorkas, recognized the risks to the EB-5 program if benefits were granted without transparency and were not adjudicated according to statute, regulations, and existing USCIS policy governing EB-5 matters. USCIS therefore took pains to ensure all communications with stakeholders were properly documented and to ensure the process for deciding on petitions and applications closely followed statute, regulations, and established policy. Indeed, USCIS was obligated by law to follow the procedures set forth in the regulations. We found a number of instances in which Mr. Mayorkas declined to become involved in certain matters, stating that he did not think it would be appropriate for the Director to do so. In three matters pending before USCIS, however, Mr. Mayorkas communicated with stakeholders on substantive issues, outside of the normal adjudicatory process, and intervened with the career USCIS staff in ways that benefited the stakeholders. In each of these three instances, but for Mr. Mayorkas’ intervention, the matter would have been decided differently. Regardless of Mr. Mayorkas’ motives, his intervention in these matters created significant resentment in USCIS. This resentment was not isolated to career staff adjudicating within the EB-5 program, but extended to senior managers and attorneys responsible for the broader USCIS mission and programs.