Civitas Capital Group’s Eric Celeste Examines the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act Four Years In

Eric Celeste, Director, Communications & Public Policy at Civitas Capital Group, has authored an article in the Fall 2026 issue of IIUSA’s Regional Center Business Journal on the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA) four years after its enactment – what changed, what is working, and what the EB-5 industry has learned.

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Drawing on interviews with EB-5 industry leaders, including Civitas Capital Group CEO and co-founder Dan Healy, the article traces how the RIA’s integrity measures helped professionalize the EB-5 industry, and how its rural set-aside and “priority processing” drove a historic shift of EB-5 capital to rural America. Rural EB-5 investment grew from roughly $354 million in seven communities before the RIA to more than $5.5 billion across 97 communities in 26 states in the three years that followed.

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The article also examines how the RIA has changed the EB-5 program’s reputation on Capitol Hill, where it is increasingly seen as an economic development tool rather than simply an immigration program.

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Read the full article (pp. 26-29).