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It is an American immigration program that is well-known everywhere in
the world except the United States, and it could be eliminated before the
end of the year.
The Diversity Visa Program - or what is sometimes called the "Green
Card Lottery" - has been targeted for elimination by the United States
House of Representatives. If the Senate adopts a similar move, a program
that has brought more than half a million immigrants to the United States
will end.
Among the people who have benefited from this program is Freddy Adu,
the young "DC United" soccer player whom many are hoping will finally
bring international respect to America's soccer program. Adu came to the
United States nine years ago from Ghana. He was just 8 years old when his
mother won a visa in the Green Card lottery.
The Diversity Visa Program was launched in 1995 as a way of expanding
the immigrant population to include people from countries that were not
strongly represented in the immigrant pool. Believe it or not, in the
mid-1990s, that actually meant northern Europeans - especially the Irish
-- who were given favored status in the early years of the program, since
their numbers had been plummeting since the 1960s.
Today, anyone from an under-represented country who has a high school
diploma and access to a computer can submit his name -- and hope it is one
of the 50,000 randomly selected to receive a green card, allowing him to
live and work in the United States.
"Overseas, it's such a positive promotional tool for living the
American Dream," says California Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, who has been
a staunch supporter of the program. "It gives people the chance to hope
and dream about coming to the United States one day."
Ms. Sanchez says the green card lottery enriches American culture by
enabling people with unique talents who might not otherwise be allowed to
come to the United States to get a green card. "Because most immigration
is family-based petitions - that means people who have relatives currently
living in the United States (are) sponsor(ed by) them, and then they come
- you tend to have immigration from specific countries more than others,"
she says. "And the Diversity Program was created so that you would make
that pool a lot more diverse, and that adds to our country, in terms of
expertise that people bring from other countries, and knowledge."
Unfortunately, sometimes green card winners bring more than just
knowledge with them when they come to the United States - they bring angry
politics and a tendency toward violence. That was the case with Hisham
Hedayet, an Egyptian-born immigrant who received a green card through the
Diversity Visa Program, and then, in 2002, killed and injured several
people at an Israeli airline ticket counter at Los Angeles International
Airport.
Hedayet is part of the reason Congressman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia has
campaigned heavily to eliminate the Diversity Visa Program. "The State
Department has identified this program, which gives 50,000 green cards
away, not based upon having a job skill that's in short supply in the
United States, not based upon family re-unification, but simply based on
pure luck, as an opportunity for terrorist organizations," Mr. Goodlatte
says. "(These groups can) submit names of people and get permanent
residence in the United States."
But if a terrorist gets in, according to Linda Sanchez, it is because
the screening process has failed - not because of the Diversity Visa
Program itself. Green card lottery winners undergo the same background
checks that all potential visa recipients receive, and Congresswoman
Sanchez says that screening process is in dire need of improvement.
But Bob Goodlatte says terrorists are just part of the problem. He says
it is also an issue of fairness. "People who have legitimate reasons for
coming to the United States," he notes, "wait in long lines, sometimes for
years, while somebody who has no ties to the United States simply puts
their name into this lottery program and has it drawn, and then they cut
to the head of the line."
It took him a few years, but in December of 2005, Congressman Goodlatte
convinced a majority of his colleagues in the House to end the Diversity
Visa Program. The issue now goes to the Senate, and both Mr. Goodlatte and
Ms. Sanchez expect lawmakers there will vote to eliminate the program.
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