Host Ray Suarez and guest panelists Algernon Austin, Marcos Vilar and Juan Carlos Benitez discuss why job creation remains low.
The EB-5 Visa and Investor Program

EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
Image: uscis.gov
An experienced business leader with a wealth of legal and regulatory experience, Juan Carlos Benitez has served as president of the Washington Pacific Economic Development Group for 15 years and president/board chairman of the Latte Training Academy for three years. Since 2013, Juan Carlos Benitez has also helped foreign nationals invest in the United States and obtain residency visas through the Marianas EB-5 Regional Center on the Northern Marianas island of Saipan.
The Marianas EB-5 Regional Center operates under the auspices of the American EB-5 Visa and Investor Program. Administered by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the EB-5 visa allows entrepreneurs, their spouses, and their dependents the opportunity to obtain permanent residence in the United States.
Congress enacted the EB-5 program in 1990 in an effort to attract foreign investment and encourage domestic job creation. Since 1992, foreign investors have been able to qualify for an EB-5 visa by investing through a chain of regional USCIS-affiliated centers. All EB-5 investors must invest in a new commercial enterprise within the United States and commit to creating and/or preserving at least 10 permanent, full-time jobs for qualified American workers within a period of two years.
About the AILA Spring CLE Conference

AILA Spring CLE Conference
Image: aila.org
An experienced litigator, Juan Carlos Benitez has worked in fields including national defense, U.S. territorial law, and economic development. For the past 15 years, he has served as president of the Washington Pacific Economic Development Group in Hagatna, Guam. Juan Carlos Benitez is also a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
The 2018 AILA Spring CLE Conference will be held in Washington, D.C., on April 13 at the Washington Court Hotel. The event will feature conversations with several liaison committees, as well as “Conversations with the Agencies,” which will give attendees insight into the decisions being made at agencies such as the Department of Labor, the Department of Homeland Security, and Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Attendees may be able to earn CLE credits. For those in jurisdictions giving an hour’s credit per 50-minute session, a maximum of 10 CLE credits is possible; a maximum of eight could be earned for jurisdictions requiring 60 minutes. Registration for the event is open at agora.aila.org.
AILA’s Immigration Lawyer Search Service

Immigration Lawyer
Image: ailalawyer.org
With decades of experience in public service, Juan Carlos Benitez was named one of the Most Influential Hispanics in the United States by Hispanic Magazine in 2002. An attorney by profession, Juan Carlos Benitez is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
AILA is the only legal association for immigration lawyers in the United States. It operates various services to connect persons in need of immigration assistance with qualified lawyers. One such service is Immigration Lawyer Search, a web portal where people can find immigration lawyers to assist them with their specific cases.
AILA maintains a comprehensive directory of immigration lawyers located throughout the country. Anyone interested in finding a lawyer for his or her situation can simply go to immigration lawyer search, fill out the search boxes, and get results showing lawyers by the type of immigration services they offer, the language they speak, their physical proximity, and their last name. Their contact details are also displayed. All lawyers who come up in the results are members of AILA who have met continuing legal education credit requirements and are in good standing with their respective state bar associations.
The AILA’s Immigration Justice Campaign Promotes Immigrant Rights

Immigration Justice Campaign
Image: aila.org
Over the course of a career spanning more than 25 years, Juan Carlos Benitez has worked as a labor attorney, a legal advisor, a legislative director, and a business executive. He currently serves as the president of three businesses based in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. Alongside his various professional pursuits, Juan Carlos Benitez maintains memberships in a number of groups, including the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
As part of its efforts to promote fair and just immigration law, the AILA oversees a variety of national programs and events aimed at education and advocacy. Currently, the organization is working to advance the Immigration Justice Campaign, a legal services initiative it launched in partnership with the American Immigration Council.
Through the Immigration Justice Campaign, the AILA and its partners leverage the work of volunteer attorneys to advocate and provide representation for individuals facing deportation from the United States. For its part, the AILA is currently building a national network of attorneys and attorney mentors to ensure that detained immigrants have access to qualified legal counsel. The organization is also coordinating advocacy efforts to help build a national movement dedicated to protecting immigrant rights.
In addition to the AILA and the American Immigration Council, partners that support the Immigration Justice Campaign include the American Immigrant Representation Project, the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative, and the Stand with Immigrants Campaign. Law school clinics, bar associations, individual law firms, and other organizations are also working to advance the initiative. For more information, visit www.aila.org/justice.