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For these lottery players, entry to U.S. is the jackpot

By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN
Published April 23, 2006

In dozens of countries - from Iran to Indonesia, Saudi Arabia to Samoa - 90,000 people will soon be getting terrific news: They've won the lottery.

No, this isn't a joke or scam. These are foreigners - many of whom don't speak English and lack higher education - who will be eligible for a Green Card to live and work in this country.

Starting May 1, the State Department will notify winners of its annual Diversity Visa Lottery, a popular but controversial program aimed at boosting immigration from countries underrepresented in the U.S. immigrant population. Notification comes at a time when the country is deep in debate over what to do about the 12-million immigrants who are here illegally.

The lottery provides a legal road to permanent residency and U.S. citizenship. But it is off-limits to Mexicans while open to natives of Iran, Syria, North Korea and other countries considered state sponsors of terrorism.

"The visa lottery is a fatally flawed program," Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told a congressional subcommittee.

"Even if you think that we need 50,000 extra people each year entering the United States, it would seem both common sense and morally imperative to simply take the next 50,000 husbands, wives and little kids of legal, permanent residents rather than take complete strangers who have no families, no skills and no jobs in the United States."

But supporters say the lottery has helped spur immigration from Africa, Eastern Europe and other areas whose residents were once barred or discouraged from seeking U.S. citizenship.

"This program has marked the first time in our history that Africans have been able to immigrate by choice in significant numbers," said Bruce Morrison, an immigration expert and former member of Congress.

"During the Cold War, we berated the Warsaw Pact countries for denying emigration rights to their citizens," he said. "The diversity visa has allowed immigration from this region to resume."

Started in 1995, the program allocates 50,000 visas a year for natives of "qualifying countries" who have the equivalent of a U.S. high school education or have worked two years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience.

In the most recent lottery for which results are available, about 90,000 names were chosen at random from among 6.3-million applicants. (It is assumed many applicants won't follow up or will later be disqualified.)

The luckiest were Ethiopians (6,995), Egyptians (6,439) and Nigerians (6,191). No North Koreans were chosen, but winners included 934 Iranians and 47 Syrians.

Barred from applying are natives of countries that have sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years. This year's lottery thus was closed to people from Canada, Mexico, India and 13 other nations.

Critics say there are too few visas to truly diversify the immigrant population - Spanish-speakers still make up almost half of all immigrants - but enough to be a burden on U.S. consular officials who must interview and screen the winners. The high volume increases chances that terrorists and other undesirables will slip through, the critics say.

"The visa lottery program presents a serious national security threat," U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told the House subcommittee reviewing the program.

Goodlatte noted that an Egyptian who killed two people at the El Al ticket counter in Los Angeles International Airport in 2002 was in the country legally because of his wife's status as a visa lottery winner. Also entering via the lottery was a Pakistani who pleaded guilty that year to plotting to blow up an armory and power substations in South Florida.

None of the Sept. 11 hijackers, however, were lottery winners. "The statement that this program is likely to be the source of a terrorist threat seems to me to be falling into the trap of seeing terrorists everywhere," Morrison told the committee.

In a 2003 report, the State Department's inspector general found numerous problems with the lottery, including multiple applications, fraudulent documents and "endemic" identity fraud. Electronic screening that began in late 2003 has made it easier to catch duplicate or fraudulent filings, inspector general Howard Krongard said.

However, he added, fraud is "an ongoing major issue," especially in countries whose records "are under such poor control that their passports, identity documents and vital records are unreliable for visa purposes."

Detractors also say the lottery has created a thriving cottage industry of lawyers and businesses that charge hefty fees for helping applicants. Some imply they are affiliated with the U.S. government or that they can increase chances of "winning," the Federal Trade Commission warns. In fact, individuals can apply at no charge on the State Department Web site (www.dvlottery.state.gov)

The government will soon be taking applications for the next lottery, which will be little changed from previous years despite the criticisms. Morrison, for one, thinks the program should be saved.

"The real debate here is one of values - do we believe that the nation benefits when we show the whole world a path to join our two-century-long project of building a nation based on democratic values?"

Susan Taylor Martin can be reached at susan@sptimes.com

Big winners in U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery, selected from entries received from November 2004 to January 2005.

1. Ethiopia: 6,995

2. Egypt: 6,439

3. Nigeria: 6,191

4. Morocco: 5,980

5. Bangladesh: 5,456

6. Ukraine: 5,269

7. Ghana: 3,880

8. Poland: 3,416

9. Kenya: 2,827

10. Albania: 2,504

Source: U.S. State Department

[Last modified April 23, 2006, 00:51:05]