Irene Ngoya Lumpungu

SOCW 410

Immigration: Diversity Visa Lottery Program

The Diversity Visa Lottery (DV Lottery) program has been a part of immigration policy

since it was established in 1990 by the Immigration Act of 1990. This act was established to

grant lawful permanent visas to up to 50,000 thousand people from different countries around the

world that had low admission rates to the United States for the five precedent fiscal years.

Countries like Mexico, United Kingdom, Nigeria, and many others with rates above 50,000 in

that same time frame were deemed ineligible for the program. People whose potentials are

unvalued and unnoticed by their countries of origin are given an opportunity to come live and

work in the United States, the country that will probably value and notice them. Previously,

lottery applicants were asked to submit an online application with their identity information

including their first and last name, date of birth, country and city of birth, and level of education

as well as a digital photo to the US State Department’s website. Unfortunately, there has been a

dramatic addition to the requirements for millions of people who are seeking to enter the lottery

program starting in 2019. On June 5, 2019, a regulation was passed by the US State Department,

requiring every applicant who would like to participate to the DV lottery program to possess an

unexpired passport. This made it harder for applicants. It was reported that the participation

dropped by 75 percent. The US State Department said that this condition was added to minimize

fraud. However, the majority of people believe that the idea of adding this new and hard

requirement to the previous list came from the fact that the US president and his administration

concluded that people who immigrate to the US are either useless to their country of origin or are

working to destroy the well-being of America.

 As stated in my introduction, the DV Lottery program has been part of the US

Immigration for almost 3 decades. People who enter the United States through the DV lottery

program are considered legal permanent residents. Although known as a nation of immigrants

and land of opportunity, the United States of America is facing a lot of challenges dealing with

immigration issues. In the recent years, immigration in general and the DV Lottery Program In

particular has been challenged by the system and Americans who believe that immigrants are in

many ways the cause of their hardships and troubles. This theory is based on facts that most of

terrorist attacks that have happened in the last 15 years were orchestrated either by immigrants or

recent immigrant descents. President Trump tweeted back in January 2018 that “New report from

DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are

foreign-born.” The White House concluded that the. current immigration system jeopardizes

United States’ national security. So, president Trump has asked the congress to completely

eliminate the DV lottery program, which has not been approved yet. After the terrorist attack in

New York last year by an immigrant from Uzbekistan, president Trump tweeted “The terrorist

came into our country through what is called the "Diversity Visa Lottery Program," a Chuck

Schumer beauty. I want merit based.” Five minutes after that tweet, he tweeted again “We are

fighting hard for Merit Based immigration, no more Democrat Lottery Systems. We must get

MUCH tougher (and smarter). @foxandfriends”. This is a huge issue for the US State

Department. So far congress has not been very active for that matter.

Who is eligible?

People from country all over the world with low entry in the United States are eligible to

participate in this program every year. However, each year, there is a list of countries that are

deemed “ineligible” to this program because there have been 50,000 or more citizens of each of
these countries who have immigrated to the United States in the 5 previous years. Even though

each year there are different names of countries that appear on the list, there are few countries

whose names appear every year. These countries are Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China

(Mainland-Born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico,

Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Peru, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland)

and its dependent territories, and Vietnam (). However, there are two exceptions for candidates

whose countries are ineligible. One is the candidate is allowed to claim the spouse's country of

birth instead if desired. Another one is the candidate can claim the parent's country of birth if

neither parent was born in the candidate's country of birth and did not legally live there when the

candidate was born. In addition to being a citizen of an eligible country, there other requirements

that a person have to meet in order to qualify for a visa number to enter the United States. The

person must have an equivalence of high school diploma or higher; they must have a clear

criminal record; and they must be healthy. The government is making sure not to grant a visa to a

person who will be a public charge (See Section 212(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality

Act (INA)). Every person who is entering the United States legally should be able to work and

pay taxes. One of the top requirements effective in 2019 is that you must have a passport to be

qualified as a participant. The State Department says these changes are meant to cut down on

fraudulent third-party entries that hold selection information from the applicant in exchange for

payment. But the government provides no evidence or statistics to support its claim (Marston,

2019).

What benefits are offered.

Even though becoming a lawful permanent resident costs a lot of money, anyone who

gets their legal residency through DV lottery are subject to many tangible and intangible benefits
once they step their feet on the “land of opportunity”. They are eligible to apply for. and receive

their permanency card called a “green card.” They have the right to be employed lawfully in the

United States and its territories with exception to jobs that are specifically reserved to US

citizens like federal jobs. Green cards holders are allowed to start their own businesses in

America. They can also get social security benefits after retirement, if they worked in the United

States for 10 years. They can get a loan and/or a mortgage They have the right to be protected by

the law. Green Card holders can travel internationally without trouble of returning to the United

States. Permanent residents may also petition for relatives (spouse, unmarried children under 21)

to enter the United States. After a certain number of years of living in the United States, they can

become eligible to apply for the US citizenship. They can also apply for state or local in-kind

benefits like SNAP, Medicaid, WIC, childcare assistance, and housing benefits. They are eligible

for educational assistance, Job training, and many more public assistances. Some green card

holders can benefit from TANF. However, recently, the Trump administration reinforcing the

idea of self-sufficiency and personal responsibility, ensuring that immigrants are able to support

themselves (Abigail Hauslohnor, 2019). The DV lottery opens a door to many benefits once the

person is in the USA.

How are the benefits delivered?

Some of the benefits are delivered electronically and others are delivered as vouchers,

and face to face. You have to go to a US embassy or consular office to obtain a visa. SNAP,

TANF, education grants are delivered electronically. Housing benefits are delivered either

through vouchers or by local public housing agencies, or through contracts between the funding

agencies and the property owners. TANF received either as a monthly check or as an electronic

transfer. WIC are monthly vouchers.

How are the benefits funded?

Most of benefits they receive in the United States are funded by either the local,state or

federal government. However, benefits like visas application, green card application, petitions

for family members, and citizenship application are not free. People pay thousands and

thousands of dollars to obtain these benefits.

Adequacy, Equity, and Equality

Questions have been raised about the adequacy, the fairness, and the equity of the DV

lottery program. There are mixed feelings about the DV lottery’s satisfaction. People have to pay

thousands of dollars to get to the Visa. Most people are thrilled to come to America until they get

there and find out that life is not the way they thought it would be. Most people with higher

education are forced to take low pay jobs to meet their and their family’s needs which makes

them feel like a step back in their lives. Whereas others who come from a very low economic

and social status think of it as a huge step up in their life. Even though the DV lottery is said to

be available to everyone, the majority of people does not have the means to carry on with the

process till the end. There is no funding for this program. Each selected candidate and their

immediate relatives are expected to be financially stable in order to get the visa and the green

card. As a consequence, rich people are able to spend thousands of dollars to get their visas while

poor people are left behind again. Each year more than half of visas intended to be given to

candidate who won the DV lottery are not given away just because applicants who were selected

did not have enough money to pay for their visa process. So, there is not equality with the DV

lottery program. With the new rule, there is no equity. Everyone is given the opportunity to get a

passport. However, not everyone can afford a passport, especially in third-world countries where

people do not have money, but their passport are more expensive than the American Passport. In
my country Congo, a passport costs $350. Most people in developing countries are poor. By

adding stricter rules to the procedure, the government is limiting that opportunity for those with

no other pathway to permanent residency (Marston, 2019). If they can barely afford food, rent

which are cheap, there is a minimum chance for them to afford a passport, especially with a short

notice.

Policy Approaches

The Trump administration is suggesting cancelling the DV lottery program in favor of

giving visa to people with high competences. They want to privilege people with higher

education and rich people who will bring businesses to America instead of bringing people who

might potentially become a public charge. The is pure capitalism. I will suggest that they reduce

the number of visas they give through DV Lottery program and start a new program that will

legalize all international students who overstayed in America after completing their degrees. I

will also suggest that they lower the cost of the whole process because when these people will

come to America, they will work, and the federal government will get tax money from their

paychecks. It is a good thing that entering the program is free. However, making it cheaper so

that people with low income or no income at all from all over the globe would be able to afford it

is great. It will also be fair to make all countries eligible regardless of the number of people from

those countries entered the United States in the last five years. This is the “land of opportunity”,

so let us give everyone the opportunity to come and make their dream come true regardless of

their socioeconomic status.

 References
Marston, H. (2019, June 14). New Diversity Visa Requirements Impose Major Obstacles for
Applicants. Retrieved from http://immigrationimpact.com/2019/06/13/new-diversity-visa-
requirements/#.XdLIQUxFyUk.
(n.d.). Retrieved from https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/diversity-visa-
program-entry.html.

Abigail Hauslohner, N. M. (2019, August 21). Trump officials move to deny green cards, path to
citizenship for poor immigrants. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-administration-aims-to-make-citizenship-
more-difficult-for-immigrants-who-rely-on-public-assistance/2019/08/12/fe3f8162-b565-11e9-
8949-5f36ff92706e_story.html.

Marston, H. (2019, June 14). New Diversity Visa Requirements Impose Major Obstacles for
Applicants. Retrieved from http://immigrationimpact.com/2019/06/13/new-diversity-visa-
requirements/#.XdNOfy2ZNQJ.