This whole discussion is kind of moot, though, since the proposed entrepreneurship program is clearly designed for "investment immigrants" who have lots of resources:
$100,000 is nothing though, and it doesn't even have to be their own money. Why should the government be giving grants to foreign entrepreneurs when there is no shortage of motivated and creative people in the US who could create businesses with the same money?
The current threshold for investment immigrants who are not from a treaty country is $1,000,000 or $500,000 in economically-depressed areas, which gets you a provisional 24-month green card during which time you have to have created 10 American jobs. You don't have to do this as an entrepreneur, you can do this as an investor in a project that is operated by someone else. Most non-treaty investor green cards go to Chinese millionaires with dirty money whose money state governments are only too happy to help launder.
$500,000 is already a low bar that is significantly lower than countries like the UK, which has a minimum investment of £1,000,000, generally higher tax rates, and more immigration restrictions. Investment immigration is to facilitate foreign investment that will definitely be in the national interest. Anything lower than that is just speculative gambling that is not in the national interest. The federal government is not a venture capital firm. If the government wants to lower or adapt this threshold, it should seek bilateral investment treaties with other countries to facilitate freer movement of capital and ideas in both directions.
