Administration Moves to End Obama-Era International Entrepreneur Program

By RJ Hauman | June 1, 2018

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is proposing a rule to end an Obama-era program that allows certain foreign entrepreneurs to be considered for parole to temporarily come to the United States to develop and build start-up businesses here, known as the International Entrepreneur Rule.

In a proposed rule published in the Federal Register last week, the agency asserted that the implementation of the so-called International Entrepreneur Rule is an “unwarranted and inadvisable” overreach of the agency’s discretionary authority to grant temporary parole to certain immigrants who are otherwise ineligible for a visa on the premise of “public benefit.”

“DHS is proposing to end the [International Entrepreneur] parole program, and remove or revise the related regulations, because this program is not the appropriate vehicle for attracting and retaining international entrepreneurs and does not adequately protect U.S. investors and U.S. workers employed by or seeking employment with the startup,” the proposed rule states.

The agency rightfully noted that such a far-reaching program is “best left to the legislative process” and that it does not present “durable immigration solutions” by failing to ensure that an entrepreneur can sustain certain levels of investment and support jobs, according to the proposed rule. It also argues that the program is a waste of resources in light of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement priorities.

FAIR has long believed that the International Entrepreneur Parole Rule is exactly the kind of unauthorized regulation that infringes on the primacy of Congress in setting immigration policy and threatens the integrity of our immigration laws, so there is little surprise that the Trump administration has moved to rescind it.