{"id":24198,"date":"2021-03-02T13:22:29","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T18:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=24198"},"modified":"2021-03-02T13:22:31","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T18:22:31","slug":"cap-raise-diversity-visa-bad-idea-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/03\/02\/cap-raise-diversity-visa-bad-idea-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Boosting Diversity Lottery is a Bad Bet for U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of the many unhelpful provisions in President Joe Biden\u2019s <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.menendez.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/USCitizenshipAct2021BillText.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">massive immigration package<\/a> would raise the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/green-card\/green-card-eligibility\/green-card-through-the-diversity-immigrant-visa-program\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">diversity visa lottery\u2019s annual ceiling<\/a> to 80,000. Tucked into just three lines on Page 217 of the 353-page bill, it opens 25,000 additional slots to newcomers who needn\u2019t have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>A\nworking knowledge of English.<\/li><li>Employable\nskills.<\/li><li>Cash on\nhand.<\/li><li>Existing\nties to the U.S. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fairus.org\/legislation\/presidential-administration\/legal-immigration\/state-department-announces-visa-lottery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">FAIR<\/a> has called this green card lottery \u201cone of the stranger and least understood entryways into American citizenship.\u201d The random selection program, inserted into the Immigration Act of 1990 to boost immigration from countries with relatively few immigrants, attracts millions of visa seekers each year. The Republic of Congo, Egypt, Iran, Nepal and Sudan have snagged the most diversity visas [DV] in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While marginally boosting applicants\u2019 odds, raising the diversity cap does not serve the economic interests of the U.S. The lottery offers none of the strategic advantages of the points-based system in the proposed <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fairus.org\/legislation\/federal-legislation\/s-1103-raise-act\" target=\"_blank\">RAISE Act<\/a>. Nor does it yield the targeted benefits of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/immigration-refugees-citizenship\/campaigns\/irregular-border-crossings-asylum\/understanding-the-system.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Canada\u2019s system<\/a> that maintains a laser-like focus on economic growth and productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe minimal\u00a0requirements of the diversity visa lottery are that the principal winner (but not his or her spouse or kids) needs to have a high school diploma or two years of specialized training (a fuzzy concept at best),\u201d notes <a href=\"https:\/\/cis.org\/North\/Unkindest-Increase-Them-All-25000-More-Diversity-Visa-Lottery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">David North<\/a> of the Center for Immigration Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile, by accident, handfuls\namong the lottery winners will have some skills, a cousin in the U.S., or some\ncash in the bank, that is pure happenstance,\u201d says North. He calls higher\nadmissions via the diversity lottery, \u201cthe least useful of all the needless\nincreases in immigration proposed by the Biden administration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lawfareblog.com\/hidden-cost-undoing-travel-ban\" target=\"_blank\">Stewart Baker<\/a>, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, sees real danger embedded in the diversity program, noting, \u201cTerrorists have come to this country through the lottery.\u201d One of them, Uzbek national <a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2017\/11\/01\/nyc-attacker-entered-u-s-diversity-visa-lottery-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Sayfullo Saipov<\/a>, used a truck to kill eight people in New York in 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSetting aside the very real questions that could be raised\nabout the program as a whole, issuing lottery visas in countries where the U.S.\ncannot do serious vetting is crazy,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the many unhelpful provisions in President Joe Biden\u2019s massive immigration package would raise the diversity visa lottery\u2019s annual ceiling to 80,000. Tucked into just three lines on Page 217 of the 353-page bill, it opens 25,000 additional slots to newcomers who needn\u2019t have: A working knowledge of English. Employable skills. Cash on hand.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/03\/02\/cap-raise-diversity-visa-bad-idea-immigrationreform-com\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[8562],"tags":[10413,1709,1524,1692],"yst_prominent_words":[1985,4962,5175,3006,3228,5204,3175,1963,9671,3171,1944,3061,5199,9891,2014,1939,2172,2170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24199,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24198\/revisions\/24199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24198"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}