Nolan writes:
“What is the Diversity Visa Program?
Section 201(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides 55,000 visas a year for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants,” from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.
The number temporarily has been reduced to 50,000, to make up to 5,000 visas a year available for use by Nicaraguans who are eligible for the NACARA program.
The eligibility requirements are stated in section 203(c). The applicant must have been born in a designated country. There are exceptions based on other connections to the designated country. Also, he must have at least a high school education or its equivalent, or two years of work experience that required at least two years of training or experience to perform.
Reasons for terminating it.
While it may be difficult to justify terminating the program on account of the recent terrorist attack, there should be some benefit to offset the fact that the program could bring terrorists to the United States. If the New York City terrorist hadn’t been here, he wouldn’t have been able to commit a terrorist act here.
The claimed benefit is diversity, but does the program really make America more diverse? The United States has a population of 326,199,506people, and that number is increasing by one international migrant (net) every 32 seconds. How does adding 50,000 aliens a year make the country more diverse?
Nevertheless, the program is bringing a lot of people in an absolute sense. Since 1995, it has made visas available to roughly one million people who have no ties to the United States. Is this fair to American citizens and legal permanent residents who get visa petitions approved to bring family members here and then have to wait years for visas to become available?
. . . .
Lastly, the visas are allocated randomly on the basis of a lottery run by the Department of State.
“A lottery is a crazy way to run an immigration system,” according to Steve Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell. “No other country selects immigrants based on a lottery.”
Wouldn’t the program add as much diversity if the same number of aliens, from the same group of countries, were to be selected on a merit-based point system?
My prediction is that the program will be terminated to make the visas available to family and/or employment-based immigrants.”
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Go on over to The Hill for Nolan’s full article which has other helpful statistics and information.
I don’t know that I see enough information to justify terminating the program at this time. But, Nolan’s point that the visas might better be used for other categories as part of overall immigration reform seems like something that should be part of the discussion.
PWS
11-03-17
Estimado Senor Juez Schmidt:
As long as Congress doesn’t decide to give all those visas to the Northern European countries, in an effort to make America *whiter* again….then at last, finally there is something I can partially agree upon with Mr. Rappaport.
Those 50K visas could be better used to serve immigrants with ties and urgent humanitarian need to be in the USA – such as for the U-Visa and SIJ programs, which currently have 10K visas available each, with per-country limitations.
Our firm alone has over 200 SIJ kids with approved I-360s, who cannot apply for LPR status because of the great backlog. They return to court date after court date, with continuances being granted at 1 year or less – clogging up the machinery for no good purpose.
U-Visa wait times for USCIS adjudication and “conditional approval” are hovering at 3 years! And once the lucky ones get that conditional approval, it could be 3+ MORE years until they are granted final approval. Meanwhile, their conditional wait time does not count towards the 3-year in U-Status to apply for LPR/
In the meantime, the poor souls placed in Removal for petty things like No Driver’s License, who only have U-Visa relief available, are being sent back to their native countries to wait for their U-Status to become current.
So yes, please Mr. Rappaport, use your influence to help divert some visas to victims of crime and innocent children.
Roxanne,
I like your suggestion to divert some of the diversity visas to victims of crime and innocent children. The ranking member of the House immigration subcommittee, Zoe Lofgren, cares very much about children. Probably crime victims too, but I don’t know. You should contact her staff on the subcommittee with your idea.
When a bill is marked up by her subcommittee, her staff will be expected to prepare amendments for her to offer, and your idea would make a good one when an appropriate bill is being marked up.
Lamar Smith recently introduced a bill that would terminate the diversity visa program which is likely to be marked up in the near future. Your amendment would be germane to that bill.
Good luck.
Nolan
It could be a good way to gracefully and productively move beyond the “Lottery.” I do see the point that with so many deserving individuals competing for limited visas, as Roxanne points out, it seems strange to assign so many visas “at random.”
There seems to be a significant amount of diversity in our current family, employment, and refugee admissions, even without the lottery. And, reassigning the lottery numbers would be “neutral” in that it would neither increase nor decrease total legal immigration. So, that should give it some across the board appeal.
Best,
P
Unfortunately, there isn’t likely to be a stand alone bill that just terminates the Diversity Visa Program. The one I was thinking of in my note to Roxanne is Lamar Smith’s H.R.3775 – Immigration in the National Interest Act of 2017, which he introduced on 9/28/17. It almost certainly will be marked up and passed on from the Judiciary Committee. And Smith might be receptive to using some of the Diversity Visa numbers for children. But I took another look at the bill and realized that Lofgren isn’t going to be able to support it and without being willing to support it, her amendment almost certainly would be disregarded. Take a look at yourself and see what you think.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/3775/text
The best bet would be to talk to someone on his staff to find out if he would be willing to amend it himself to use some of the Diversity Visa numbers for children. He might. I don’t know him well, but I do know him.
Nolan
Thanks, Nolan. That’s helpful to know!
Best,
P
I read through the bill, and will reach out to Rep. Smith’s staff. I don’t hold much hope, though. Given his stance on “anchor babies” and bans on Syrian refugees and other obnoxious ideas about immigrants, that Smith would give a rats *** and be open to helping vulnerable children fleeing from the wreck that is Central America – created largely by American culture and politics going back to the 1950s.
That, and Smith’s bill is supported by Baby Dave Brat – who by virtue of my zip code and nothing else, supposedly represents me 🙁 I sent Brat an email a while back about healthcare, and his robo-response was titled Dear Mr. Fantl……When I tried to respond, I was re-redirected to his website to “obtain more information about the issue.”
In Dave Brat’s district, in the Chesterfield County Public Schools, a middle school teacher gave out the following assignment to 7th graders (verified by a reliable source!):
“What jobs are immigrants taking? Affect (misspelled in the original!) on the economy?”
“How are immigrants affecting your eduction?”
“How are immigrants impacting your ability to get into a good college?”
“Crime?”
“Terrorism?”
“Welfare/Government support?”
“Technology?”
“Healthcare?”
With the latest disturbing news of TPS for Central Americans apparently on the chopping block, and rancid atmosphere down here in Central Virginia, it is indeed discouraging to read the news everyday.
Roxanne,
You are changing what you want. In your initial comment, you said, “Those 50K visas could be better used to serve immigrants with ties and urgent humanitarian need to be in the USA – such as for the U-Visa and SIJ programs, which currently have 10K visas available each, with per-country limitations.”
Now, you are saying your want visas for, “vulnerable children fleeing from the wreck that is Central America.”
I don’t think his staff will pay any attention to you if you ask for visas for kids fleeing from Central America. The republicans want to discourage kids who are coming here from Central America. In fact, Obama did too until the political pressure opposing that view was too much for him.
The U visa is a nonimmigrant visa, isn’t it? The diversity visas are for permanent residence. The Special Immigrant Juveniles program, however, grants LPR status. That’s what I would focus on.
SIJ status is good for a number of reason. Especially because it requires a court order, which greatly limits the number and reduces the possibility of kids getting a benefit they aren’t really eligible to have.
And you won’t get anywhere with an email. You need to meet in person with a staffer, and you have to handle the meeting properly.
The staffer is unlikely to know what SIJ status is or have any interest in it. You need to be able to explain it to him quickly. Handing him a colorful, printed slide presentation and explain each slide to him verbally.
Do you have kids? If not, do you know any? You should practice this slide presentation with a middle school kid of average intelligence. The staffer will be much smarter than that, but you aren’t going to get his/her complete attention. They have too many things to do, and this will be particularly true when there is a markup coming up.
Good luck.
Nolan
Thanks Nolan for your reply.
Yes, you are correct, U-Nonimmgrant Status is a non-immigrant visa, which ultimately can lead to LPR after 3 years. Having worked on hundreds of these cases, I have a pretty solid prospective about what the process entails, and where it leads. My point with the elimination of the Diversity Visas was that Congress could morph the unused IV into additional U-Visas for deserving immigrants, with the understanding that after 3 years of U-Status, they would be applying for LPR, and as such reserving some of the DV numbers for the U-Status immigrants would be wise.
As you are well aware, the principal applicants are limited to 10K visas annually, but their derivative beneficiaries have no cap. As such, with 1 principal applicant, included in the 10K, you could have 10+ derivatives where the cap doesn’t apply, which includes LPR status.
SIJ status, in recent years at least, is heavily reliant upon predicate orders in JDR courts – primarily from Central American children, who are in fact abused, neglected and/or abandoned, and are present in the USA who have fled the violence in Central America. The spike in applications of I-360s is evidence of that change in circumstances in C.A. which has been boilling over since the the 1990s.
I do have 3 kiddos, 6 year old twins and a 9 year old, who are in their momma’s eyes, way above middle schoolers average intelligence. It is disturbing that I would have to prepare a slide show presentation to a House of Representative Staffer that was for a 13 year old? For the Representative that has a very strong opinion about immigration issues and reform….Ah, Nolan, I was already depressed from the week’s news – that makes it all the worse.
So although it should be appealing to meet with a disinterested staffer from Lamar Smith’s *court*, I would prefer to invite YOU to come and spend a week with me in our office? You could sit in on interviews with our clients – and get a feel for what the true reality is for these immigrants, and make up your own mind. Based on your education, experience, and intuition.
No worries if you don’t speak Spanish, our entire staff is bilingual. I believe that it will be eye-opening, and informative – in a way I doubt you have personally experienced previously. I can promise you won’t be bored.
Now THAT would be a good *story* for The Hill. Please let me know if you are interested, and we can make the arrangements.
Roxanne says, “It is disturbing that I would have to prepare a slide show presentation to a House of Representative Staffer that was for a 13 year old? For the Representative that has a very strong opinion about immigration issues and reform….Ah, Nolan, I was already depressed from the week’s news – that makes it all the worse.”
You seem to have misunderstood what I said. Congressional staffers generally are very intelligent, and that certainly would be true of staffers for someone as important as Lamar Smith. The problem is that they have no reason to care about you or your request, and they almost certainly will be very busy. You have to be able to explain what you want and why they should do it very quickly.
And you can’t assume that they will know anything about immigration. Smith does have very strong views on immigration, but he has to deal with many issues. Immigration is just one of them. He probably only has one person on his staff who handles immigration issues, and there is no reason to think that will be the person who meets with you.
I was a Judiciary Committee staffer for seven years, and meeting with lobbyists was one of my responsibilities. I am giving you the benefit of my experience, but you are under no obligation to follow my advice.
Roxane says, “So although it should be appealing to meet with a disinterested staffer from Lamar Smith’s *court*, I would prefer to invite YOU to come and spend a week with me in our office?
You could sit in on interviews with our clients – and get a feel for what the true reality is for these immigrants, and make up your own mind. Based on your education, experience, and intuition. No worries if you don’t speak Spanish, our entire staff is bilingual. I believe that it will be eye-opening, and informative – in a way I doubt you have personally experienced previously. I can promise you won’t be bored.
Now THAT would be a good *story* for The Hill. Please let me know if you are interested, and we can make the arrangements.”
I’m retired. I do “contribute” op eds to the Hill, but my editor only publishes opinions on current events. When the concerns of your clients are in the news, contact me and I will be happy to write an article on them…if you provide me with most of the information I will need and my editor accepts the topic.