2 Bills to Eliminate Diversity Lottery

[lifestrikes]

* Conservative Republican Rep. Issa of California introduced a bill to eliminate the diversity lottery progam and replace the numbers by the U.S. educated STEM Ph.D. immigration. This bill has been pending in the House Judiciary Committee.

* Yesterday, another conservative Republican from the Virginia, Rep. Bob Goodlotte, introduced another bill, H.R. 704, with 12 ultra conservative Republican cosponsors, to eliminate the diversity lottery program. The co-sponsors are: Rep Brian Bilbray (CA), Rep Mike Coffman (CO), Rep Michael Conaway (TX), Rep Peter DeFazio (OR), Rep Elton Gallegly (CA, current Immigration Subcommittee Chair), Rep Steve King, Steve (IA, current Immigration Subcommittee Vice-Chair), Rep Kenny Marchant (TX), Rep Sue Wilkins Myrick (NC), Rep Brad Sherman (CA), Rep Lamar Smith, (TX, current Judiciary Committee chair), Rep Allen West (FL), and Rep Frank Wolf (VA).

[pbuckeye]

I think its Goodlatte. I remember him supporting Zoe's recapture bill in 2008 before Mr King and the Horse bill hijacked it.

Wonder how vociferously the Dems will oppose any DV visas reallocation.

[naidu]

Are these bills only for PHDs or for Masters too?

[imh1b]

Are these bills only for PHDs or for Masters too?



Either way it will help us reduce backlog.

[ryan]

* Conservative Republican Rep. Issa of California introduced a bill to eliminate the diversity lottery progam and replace the numbers by the U.S. educated STEM Ph.D. immigration. This bill has been pending in the House Judiciary Committee.

* Yesterday, another conservative Republican from the Virginia, Rep. Bob Goodlotte, introduced another bill, H.R. 704, with 12 ultra conservative Republican cosponsors, to eliminate the diversity lottery program. (VA).

I appreciate we are all in queue to have that resident card. Most, if not all amongst us have been fortunate to have an education, travel, find work and a livelihood here in America. However, there are the less fortunate who may not have the opportunities (or the possibilities) The Diversity Lottery program extends that possibility to those less fortunate, restricted in their lives for whatever reason and so on. Giving people an opportunity so they too can have a better future is (one of the) beauty of this land. This also brings more diversity to the land, where people of different backgrouds / origins come together. Personally, I find it all quite fascinating, because I grew up in a multicultural town, where people hardly integrated. Everybody formed their own little “towns”. Anyway, I for one, do not support the removal of this program in its entirety, because I do not believe someone with a Masters (I have one) or a PhD education, should have more privileges (in addition to what's on hand) to folks who may not have any? Anyway, it’s just an opinion.

[gk_2000]

I appreciate we are all in queue to have that resident card. Most, if not all amongst us have been fortunate to have an education, travel, find work and a livelihood here in America. However, there are the less fortunate who may not have the opportunities (or the possibilities) The Diversity Lottery program extends that possibility to those less fortunate, restricted in their lives for whatever reason and so on. Giving people an opportunity so they too can have a better future is (one of the) beauty of this land. This also brings more diversity to the land, where people of different backgrouds / origins come together. Personally, I find it all quite fascinating, because I grew up in a multicultural town, where people hardly integrated. Everybody formed their own little “towns”. Anyway, I for one, do not support the removal of this program in its entirety, because I do not believe someone with a Masters (I have one) or a PhD education, should have more privileges (in addition to what's on hand) to folks who may not have any? Anyway, it’s just an opinion.

Ryan,
What good is the 50000 figure going to do in the name of "diversity"? We are already flooded with 12 M of people from outside, and any exercise of diversity is a laughing stock at the face of this. OTOH, having 140000 people who can integrate well into American society and who have been waiting for years is only a common-sense solution. Perhaps, the diversity visas can come back once the matters of illegal immigration and visa backlogs have been dealt with?

[lifestrikes]

Actual Speech about the Second Bill

INTRODUCTION OF THE ``SECURITY AND FAIRNESS ENHANCEMENT (SAFE) FOR AMERICA ACT''

SPEECH OF
HON. BOB GOODLATTE
OF VIRGINIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2011

* Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the bipartisan ``Security and Fairness Enhancement (SAFE) for America Act.'' This much-needed legislation eliminates the controversial visa lottery program, through which 50,000 aliens are chosen at random to come and live permanently in the United States based on pure luck. The visa lottery program threatens national security, results in the unfair administration of our Nation's immigration laws, and encourages a cottage industry for fraudulent opportunists.

* Because winners of the visa lottery are chosen at random, the visa lottery program presents a serious national security threat. A perfect example of the system gone awry is the case of Hesham Mohamed Ali Hedayet, the Egyptian national who killed two and wounded three during a shooting spree at Los Angeles International Airport in July of 2002. He was allowed to apply for lawful permanent resident status in 1997 because of his wife's status as a visa lottery winner.

* The State Department's Inspector General has even weighed in on the national security threat posed by the visa lottery program. During testimony before the House Committee on the Judiciary, the Office of Inspector General stated that the Office ``continues to believe that the diversity visa program contains significant risks to national security from hostile intelligence officers, criminals, and terrorists attempting to use the program for entry into the United States as permanent residents.''

* Even if improvements were made to the visa lottery program, nothing would prevent terrorist organizations or foreign intelligence agencies from planting members in the U.S. by having those members apply for the program. As long as those individuals do not have previous criminal backgrounds, these types of organized efforts would never be detected, even if significant background checks and counter-fraud measures were enacted within the program.

* Usually, immigrant visas are issued to foreign nationals that have existing connections with family members lawfully residing in the United States or with U.S. employers. These types of relationships help ensure that immigrants entering our country have a stake in continuing America's success and have needed skills to contribute to our Nation's economy. However, under the visa lottery program, visas are awarded to immigrants at random without meeting such criteria.

* In addition, the visa lottery program is unfair to immigrants who comply with the United States' immigration laws. The visa lottery program does not expressly prohibit illegal aliens from applying to receive visas through the program. Thus, the program treats foreign nationals that comply with our laws the same as those that blatantly violate our laws. In addition, most family-sponsored immigrants currently face a wait of years to obtain visas, yet the lottery program pushes 50,000 random immigrants with no particular family ties, job skills or education ahead of these family and employer-sponsored immigrants each year with relatively no wait. This sends the wrong message to those who wish to enter our great country and to the international community as a whole.

* Furthermore, the visa lottery program is wrought with fraud. A report released by the Center for Immigration Studies states that it is commonplace for foreign nationals to apply for the lottery program multiple times using many different aliases. In addition, the visa lottery program has spawned a cottage industry featuring sponsors in the U.S. who falsely promise success to applicants in exchange for large sums of money. Ill-informed foreign nationals are willing to pay top dollar for the ``guarantee'' of lawful permanent resident status in the U.S.

* The State Department's Office of Inspector General confirms these allegations of widespread fraud in a September 2003 report. Specifically, the report states that the visa lottery program is ``subject to widespread abuse'' and that ``identity fraud is endemic, and fraudulent documents are commonplace.'' Furthermore, the report also reveals that the State Department found that 364,000 duplicate applications were detected in the 2003 visa lottery alone.

* In addition, the visa lottery program is by its very nature discriminatory. The complex formula for assigning visas under the program arbitrarily disqualifies natives from countries that send more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. within a five-year period, which excludes nationals from countries such as Brazil, Canada, India, the Philippines and others.

* The visa lottery program represents what is wrong with our country's immigration system. My legislation would eliminate the visa lottery program. The removal of this controversial program will help ensure our Nation's security, make the administration of our immigration

[Goodintentions]

Dear All,

We should support these bills whole heartedly. I have visited the local Congressman's office and explained the issue. I have sent letters (not mails) to all the concerned judicial committee members (related to the Issa bill)

Contrary to popular opinion expressed in IV, I was suprised to learn from law makers that many of them feel that the diversity visa is an outdated provision which has no room in today's America.

Can we all write letters to the Congress Rep, Senators and other members who matter, requesting them to support the bills? No opportunity should be missed!

You may draft the letter the way you like but in the subject line please state: "Request to support Bill No. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I repeat and request, signed snail letters are better than Emails! This is slightly painful in this E-age, but it carries much more weight!

[indigo10]

Good thinking

I appreciate we are all in queue to have that resident card. Most, if not all amongst us have been fortunate to have an education, travel, find work and a livelihood here in America. However, there are the less fortunate who may not have the opportunities (or the possibilities) The Diversity Lottery program extends that possibility to those less fortunate, restricted in their lives for whatever reason and so on. Giving people an opportunity so they too can have a better future is (one of the) beauty of this land. This also brings more diversity to the land, where people of different backgrouds / origins come together. Personally, I find it all quite fascinating, because I grew up in a multicultural town, where people hardly integrated. Everybody formed their own little “towns”. Anyway, I for one, do not support the removal of this program in its entirety, because I do not believe someone with a Masters (I have one) or a PhD education, should have more privileges (in addition to what's on hand) to folks who may not have any? Anyway, it’s just an opinion.

[tonyHK12]

There is a caveat to this. The anti-immigrant groups numbersUSA, FAIR support elimination of the diversity lottery and the above bills. They do have some support among law makers, so that is not surprising.
FAIR for one, is for reducing all forms of immigration, including legal, so some of their law makers do work against our provisions many times.

Attorney Greg Siskind from our National advisory board comments on NumbersUSA - http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/forum110-recent-blogs/1954685-numbers-usa-grades-2012-presidential-hopefuls.html

Lets all focus our energies on the 2011 Advocacy days that is just 6 weeks away. The plan is to get things done, that are much bigger than this.
,