k-12 tax & $pending climate: ‘The Heartland Visa’: The Push for a New Visa Category to Repopulate American Towns With Foreign Workers
A think tank co-founded by Facebook’s first president wants at least 100,000 visas a year—and has already identified more than 1,700 counties that could qualify.
The ambition is national. EIG’s blueprint identifies more than 1,700 potentially eligible counties, home to 58 million people. It proposes a minimum of 100,000 visas annually.
These communities’ economic pain has become the sales pitch for changing who lives in them.
And the campaign is still being pushed in Washington.
EIG’s first-quarter 2026 lobbying disclosure lists Heartland Visas and the Heartland Visa Act of 2024. Its second-quarter filing, submitted July 20, names them again. Together, the filings report $360,000 in lobbying expenses across the organization’s policy agenda; they do not break out spending on this visa campaign.
The documents name John Lettieri and Catherine Lyons as lobbyists. This is an organized effort to turn a demographic proposal into federal policy.
