Washington, D.C. - First a computer glitch dashed the hopes of thousands, and now there will be a congressional hearing this week to consider shutting down the whole program.
It's been a tough month for the diversity visa green card lottery. A second drawing for the 2012 Diversity Visa went forward last week, despite the legal efforts to stop the allocation.
A problem with computer code marred the original selection process in June, and thousands of applicants were wrongly notified, including several Irish, that they had won a coveted path to a green card allowing legal permanent residency in the U.S. The new allotment is now complete, and the 15 million applicants must once again go online and see the new results.
The program, originally designed with the Irish in mind by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, and later carried to fruition by then congressmen Bruce Morrison and Charles Schumer, is under fire for more than just its technological breakdown.
Currently the program accepts any applicant from all geographic areas, with the exceptions of countries that already have a preponderance of immigrants in the system such as Canada, China, and Britain.
Northern Ireland is considered separate from Britain and included in the lottery.
All the applicant needs is a bit of luck, a high school diploma or two years of work experience; and you don't even have to pay a fee unless you are selected.
Such skimpy criteria is the problem with critics like Yale University law professor, Peter Schuck. He recently penned an op-ed in the "Boston Herald" condemning the Diversity Visa program. He ruled it a capricious approach to handing out green cards and said it diminishes the chance to entice immigrants with sought after employment skills.
From his office in Manhattan, Professor Schuck claimed in a telephone interview with the Echo that the lottery system can not only bring in the wrong kind of immigrant, it can also be "gamed."
"There are lawyers and intermediaries who submit applications of multiple variations of the same name that the government can not readily detect- it really does game the system," he said.
In his op-ed, Schuck said the program was flawed from the beginning and noted that much had been done to skew the initial allotment of visas to the Irish, but now the largest recipients are from Africa. He says we should "hand pick" our immigrants and have more rigorous and demanding criteria for access to permanent entry into America.
His solution: "Abolish the program and use those 50,000 visas (or more) to promote carefully defined national interests, particularly in more high-skilled immigrants who, many studies show, produce jobs, innovation and new businesses. After all, these visas are permanent, not temporary, as with the H1-B visas."
He would also like to sell some of the visas to the highest bidders.
Meanwhile, conservative congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) just wants to scrap the whole thing. He's worried that terrorists could use this visa application process in particular, this out of the many paths to obtaining a visa to live and work in the U.S.
Goodlatte has introduced the SAFE for America Act, which would eliminate all the diversity lottery visas.
"The visa lottery is flawed policy and is foolish in the age in which we live. Our immigration policy should not be based on arbitrary systems lacking basic safeguards," said Goodlatte, who represents Roanoke and rural southern Virginia adjacent to the mountainous West Virginia border.
Goodlatte has shepherded the SAFE for America Act through to a mark-up this week in the House Judiciary Committee. If passed, it would then go to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote.
Asked for comment on the potential demise of the visa program, a U.S. State Department official offered little to defend the attacks on the diversity program,
"Whether or not the diversity visa program is changed, or eliminated, is a matter for Congress to decide," the official said.
