U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office

Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800

Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001

93–387 PDF 2004

DIVERSITY VISA PROGRAM AND ITS

SUSCEPTIBILITY TO FRAUD AND ABUSE

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION, 

BORDER SECURITY, AND CLAIMS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

APRIL 29, 2004

Serial No. 82

Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/judiciary 

(II)

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., Wisconsin, Chairman 

HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois 

HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina 

LAMAR SMITH, Texas 

ELTON GALLEGLY, California 

BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

WILLIAM L. JENKINS, Tennessee 

CHRIS CANNON, Utah 

SPENCER BACHUS, Alabama 

JOHN N. HOSTETTLER, Indiana 

MARK GREEN, Wisconsin 

RIC KELLER, Florida 

MELISSA A. HART, Pennsylvania 

JEFF FLAKE, Arizona 

MIKE PENCE, Indiana 

J. RANDY FORBES, Virginia 

STEVE KING, Iowa 

JOHN R. CARTER, Texas 

TOM FEENEY, Florida 

MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee 

JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan 

HOWARD L. BERMAN, California 

RICK BOUCHER, Virginia 

JERROLD NADLER, New York 

ROBERT C. SCOTT, Virginia 

MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas 

MAXINE WATERS, California 

MARTIN T. MEEHAN, Massachusetts 

WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts 

ROBERT WEXLER, Florida 

TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin 

ANTHONY D. WEINER, New York 

ADAM B. SCHIFF, California 

LINDA T. SA ́ NCHEZ, California

PHILIP G. KIKO, Chief of Staff-General Counsel 

PERRY H. APELBAUM, Minority Chief Counsel 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY, AND CLAIMS

JOHN N. HOSTETTLER, Indiana, Chairman

JEFF FLAKE, Arizona 

MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee 

LAMAR SMITH, Texas 

ELTON GALLEGLY, California 

CHRIS CANNON, Utah 

STEVE KING, Iowa 

MELISSA A. HART, Pennsylvania 

SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas 

LINDA T. SA ́ NCHEZ, California 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

HOWARD L. BERMAN, California 

JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan

GEORGE FISHMAN, Chief Counsel 

ART ARTHUR, Full Committee Counsel 

LUKE BELLOCCHI, Counsel 

CINDY BLACKSTON, Professional Staff 

NOLAN RAPPAPORT, Minority Counsel 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

APRIL 29, 2004

OPENING STATEMENT 

Page 

The Honorable John N. Hostettler, a Representative in Congress From the 

State of Indiana, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Immigration, Border 

Security, and Claims ............................................................................................ 1

The Honorable Howard Berman, a Representative in Congress From the 

State of California ................................................................................................ 3

The Honorable Steve King, a Representative in Congress From the State 

of Iowa ................................................................................................................... 3

The Honorable Bob Goodlatte, a Representative in Congress From the State 

of Virginia ............................................................................................................. 4

The Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, a Representative in Congress From the 

State of Texas, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims ..................................................................................... 49

WITNESSES 

The Honorable Anne W. Patterson, Deputy Inspector General, United States 

Department of State 

Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 7

Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 9

Mr. Jan Ting, Professor of Law, Temple University James E. Beasley School 

of Law 

Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 12

Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 14

Dr. Steven A. Camarota, Ph.D., Director of Research, Center for Immigration 

Studies 

Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 30

Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 32

Mr. Charles Nyaga, Marietta, GA 

Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 34

Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 35

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Temple International and Comparative Law Journal Article submitted by 

Mr. Jan Ting ......................................................................................................... 18

Letters of Support submitted by Mr. Charles Nyaga ........................................... 38

APPENDIX 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING RECORD

Prepared statement of the Honorable Elton Gallegly, a Representative in 

Congress From the State of California ............................................................... 61

Prepared statement of the Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, a Representative 

in Congress From the State of Texas, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee 

on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims ................................................... 61

(1)

DIVERSITY VISA PROGRAM AND ITS 

SUSCEPTIBILITY TO FRAUD AND ABUSE 

THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2004

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY, AND CLAIMS, COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, DC.

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:07 a.m., in 

Room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. John N. 

Hostettler (Chair of the Subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. The Subcommittee will come to order. 

Last week it was reported that Pat Tillman, a former safety for 

the Arizona Cardinals and an Army Ranger, was killed in Afghanistan. Before we begin today’s hearing, I would like to pass along 

my condolences to Specialist Tillman’s family and my gratitude to 

all of the men and women who are serving our country and to their 

families. 

I would also like to mention another American hero whose death 

has received less notice. On the evening of December 16th, 2003, 

Border Patrol Agent James P. Epling disappeared while in foot 

pursuit of several illegal aliens along the Colorado River. Agent 

Epling, assigned to the Yuma Border Patrol Sector in Yuma, Arizona, was working near Andrade, California, when he was last 

seen attempting to apprehend a group of illegal aliens along the 

banks of the Colorado River. 

Moments prior to his disappearance, Agent Epling, with complete 

disregard for his personal safety, entered the swift cold waters of 

the Colorado River to rescue a female alien in distress. Agent 

Epling reached for the woman and pulled her to the safety of the 

riverbank, where another agent waited to assist. 

After transferring the woman to the other agent, Agent Epling 

pursued four other individuals he observed running south toward 

Mexico, along the riverbank, in an attempt to escape arrest. That 

was the last time that Agent Epling was seen alive. Agent Epling 

left beind a wife, who was 8 months pregnant at the time, and 

three children, as well as his parents. He was 24 years old. On 

January 28, 2004, James Paul Epling, II, was born. 

It is important as we work as a Committee, and a Subcommittee, 

to remember the brave men and women who labor day and night, 

365 days a year, to enforce our immigration laws. They keep vigil 

at our ports of entry, in our cities, and along our border, ready to 

defend our country and its people. Some of them, like Agent 

Epling, make the ultimate sacrifice for the United States. 

2

I join Customs and Border Protection Chairman Robert Bonner 

in calling Agent Epling, ‘‘One of our Nation’s most heroic guardians.’’

And now I turn to our hearing. 

Today, the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and 

Claims will examine the Diversity Visa or DV Program. At this 

hearing, we will review the history of the program and its implementation. The DV Program was part of the Immigration Act of 

1990. It was designed to increase diversity in the U.S. immigrant 

population by providing nationals of countries that have had low 

immigration rates to the United States the opportunity to apply for 

immigrant visas. Applicants for the DV Program participate in a 

lottery in which the winners are selected through a computer-generated random drawing. Qualifying winners are issued visas on a 

first-come, first-served basis. Annually, approximately 50,000 

aliens enter under the program. 

The program is not without its critics, however. Some experts 

have argued that the program is susceptible to fraud and manipulation. For example, although a DV applicant will be disqualified 

if the State Department discovers that more than one application 

per year is filed on his or her behalf, critics have asserted that it 

is commonplace for aliens to file multiple applications for the lottery, a fact borne out by news reports. 

In addition, reviewers have asserted that identity fraud, in the 

process, is ‘‘endemic,’’ and that the case of fraudulent documents in 

connection with the visa lottery is ‘‘commonplace.’’ This makes 

sense if aliens are filing multiple applications under various aliases 

to improve their chances in a lottery. If an alien were to be selected 

under an alias, the alien must then obtain and use fraudulent documents to support the visa application. Others have complained 

that the lottery has spawned a cottage industry of sponsors who 

falsely promise success to applicants in exchange for large sums of 

money. 

In addition to, and in part because of, concerns about fraud in 

the DV Program, critics have argued that the program poses a danger to national security. Specifically, the lack of restrictions on admissions under the DV Program has been identified as a vulnerability that could be exploited by criminals and terrorists. Unlike 

nonimmigrant visas, there are no bars to participation in a visa lottery on aliens from state-sponsors of terrorism. Consequently, 3,380 

alien nationals from state sponsors of terrorism, not counting Iraq, 

were selected in the DV 2004 lottery. 

Further, unlike other visa categories, aliens who enter the 

United States under the DV Program need not have any familial 

or business ties to our country. These types of relationships help 

ensure that immigrants who enter our country have a stake in our 

country’s success and have the advanced skills to contribute to our 

economy, which some successful DV applicants lack. 

For whatever the reason, aliens who have immigrated under the 

DV Program have been tied to terrorism in the recent past. 

Hesham Hedayet, who killed two and injured several others in an 

attack at Los Angeles Airport on July 4th, 2002, received his green 

card under the DV Program. In an asylum application that he had 

3

filed earlier, he had claimed that he had been accused of being a 

terrorist, a claim that the former INS never investigated. 

Similarly, a Pakistani national who pleaded guilty in August 

2002 to a single count of conspiracy to use arson or explosives to 

destroy electrical power stations in Florida and two Moroccans, 

who were indicted as members of an alleged sleeper cell that same 

month, also entered the United States under the DV Program. 

In addition, critics have complained that the DV Program unfairly moves lottery winners ahead of certain family and employersponsored immigrants. This is particularly an issue for aliens in 

lower priority categories who have to wait years for visas. 

Further, experts have asserted that the cost of the DV Program 

exceed the revenue that the program raises, despite the fact that 

Congress, in the 1996 act, authorized the State Department to collect a fee for the processing of DV visas. In the nonimmigrant process, applicants pay a processing fee in advance. Currently, however, only those DV applicants who are selected in the lottery actually pay a fee. 

Finally, critics have questioned whether the DV Program even 

accomplishes its goal of enhancing and promoting diversity among 

immigrants to the United States. Some have gone so far as to term 

these ‘‘antidiversity’’ visas, asserting that they are intended to offset the diversity resulting from nondiscriminatory immigration. We 

will explore these issues with our witnesses today. 

Before I begin, I would like to recognize a Member of the minority for an opening statement, if you have one. 

Mr. BERMAN. No. I recall the whole process and the thinking that 

went into the creation of this program back in the 1990 bill, but 

I take a little bit of issue with some of the points in the Chairman’s 

opening statement, but I would be curious to hear more from our 

experts about the program. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. I thank the gentleman. 

The chair recognizes the gentleman from Iowa, Mr. King, for 5 

minutes. 

Mr. KING. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate you holding 

this hearing today. This is an aspect of immigration that I have not 

been involved in a serious investigation of in the past. 

I would just frame this discussion with that any Nation has to 

have a solid immigration policy and that all Nations do, and all 

Nations have to preserve and protect their borders. And the goal 

of an immigration policy is certainly for national security, but also 

the policy should reflect the economic, the social, and the cultural 

interests of the Nation that established that policy, and in this 

case, it is the United States of America. 

And I will be curious, as this testimony unfolds, to hear how the 

diversity lottery has enhanced the economic, social or cultural wellbeing of the United States and whether it fits in and is compatible 

with a number of our other immigration policies and to continue 

the discussion of what are our overall goals, and what do we want 

this Nation to look like in 10 years or 25 years or 50 years. Immigration policy directs that, and every aspect and every component 

of immigration policy affects us in a long-term way. 

We can deal with any of these in the short term, and we can 

adapt, but I would also point out that it has been the policy of the 

4

United States over past years to promote assimilation, with the 

idea that we have a greater overall American culture and civilization that we ask people to buy into and to commit themselves to 

this Nation and demonstrate a level of patriotism, and that we 

have lost it. 

We have lost our goals, and to the extent that we have been promoting other values, aside from this overall American culture, and 

the idea of not supporting assimilation and, in fact, dividing and 

working against assimilation and promoting ideas that are counter 

to the interests of the United States is something that I am interested in healing back up again, and so I will be looking at how we 

can use the diversity lottery, if at all, to promote the idea of assimilation. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to the testimony. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. I thank the gentleman. 

The chair will now introduce the panel of witnesses that is before 

us today. 

Anne Patterson—excuse me. In just a moment, I will introduce 

the panel of witnesses. 

[Pause.] 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. We are honored to have our colleague from the 

Judiciary Committee, the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Goodlatte 

with us today. I would ask unanimous consent for the chair to be 

given an additional 5 minutes during opening statements, which it 

will yield to the gentleman from Virginia for an opening statement 

that he may wish to present. 

Seeing no objections, the gentleman may proceed for 5 minutes. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for holding 

this hearing, and I apologize for my tardiness. I very much appreciate the opportunity to participate and to offer my comments on 

what I think is an important piece of legislation. 

Last February, I introduced the Security and Fairness Enhancement or SAFE for America Act. This important legislation would 

eliminate the controversial visa lottery program which threatens 

national security, results in the unfair administration of our Nation’s immigration laws and encourages a cottage industry for 

fraudulent opportunists. This program presents a serious national 

security threat. 

Under the program, each successful applicant is chosen at random and given the status of permanent residence based on pure 

luck. 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 on 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. 

In a report issued in September of 2003, the Office of the Inspector 

General stated that the visa lottery program contained significant 

threats to national security from entry of hostile intelligence officers, criminals and terrorists in the United States as permanent 

residents. 

5

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. If 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 

recent 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 false 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 the Inspector General confirms 

these allegations of widespread fraud in its September 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 DV 2003 alone. The only current penalty for such abuse is disqualification in that year’s lottery. 

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 laws more consistent and fair and help reduce immigration fraud and opportunism. The serious national security 

threats, fraud and waste that the visa lottery program present beg 

the question why is this program still in existence? 

I applaud you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing to carefully examine this controversial program, and I look forward to 

hearing from today’s witnesses. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. I thank the gentleman. 

The chair will now introduce the panel. 

Anne Patterson is the Deputy Inspector General of the U.S. Department of State. Just before beginning this assignment, she 

served as the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia and, before that, as our 

6

Ambassador to El Salvador. Ambassador Patterson joined the Foreign Service in 1973 as an economic officer. She has served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary 

of Inter-American Affairs and as office director for the Andean 

Countries. 

During the course of her career, Ambassador Patterson has had 

a variety of political and economic assignments, including in the 

Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, the Bureau of Intelligence and 

Research, and the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. I also 

understand that Ambassador Patterson has been tapped to be the 

career Deputy U.N. Ambassador and congratulate her on this appointment. A graduate from Wellesley College, Ambassador Patterson attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina. 

Jan Ting is a professor of law at Temple University Law School 

where he has worked on and off since 1977. Professor Ting took 

time off from his academic duties to serve as the Assistant Commissioner for the Immigration and Naturalization Service from 

1990 until 1993. Before joining the Temple Law School faculty, Professor Ting was an attorney at the Philadelphia law firm of Pepper, 

Hamilton & Sheetz. He currently teaches courses in immigration 

and tax law and has published several articles in both of those 

areas. He is a graduate of Oberland College and received an MA 

degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii in 1972. He 

received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1975. 

Steven Camarota is Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies here in Washington. He has testified several times 

before Congress and has published numerous articles on the impact 

of immigration in such journals and papers as Social Science Quarterly, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and National Review. Dr. Camarota is currently under contract with the Census 

Bureau as the lead researcher on a project examining the quality 

of foreign-born data in the American Community Survey. He holds 

a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in public policy analysis 

and a master’s degree in political science from the University of 

Pennsylvania. 

Charles Nyaga is a native of Kenya. He came to the United 

States with his family as a student 8 years ago, and he is currently 

a master of divinity student at the Interdenominational Theological 

Center in Atlanta, Georgia. 

In 1997, he applied for the 1998 Diversity Visa Program, and his 

application was selected. In accordance with the Diversity Visa requirements, Mr. Nyaga and his wife submitted an application to 

adjust their status to lawful permanent resident. Because at the 

end of the fiscal year the INS had failed to adjust Mr. Nyaga’s status, his application expired. Mr. Nyaga and his wife took their case 

to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In a decision issued last 

year, the Court found that the INS lacked the authority to act on 

Mr. Nyaga’s application after the end of the fiscal year. Mr. Nyaga 

will be discussing his case with the Subcommittee today. 

At this time, members of the panel, without objection, you will 

have 5 minutes to offer your opening statements, and your written 

statements can be offered into the record. 

Ambassador Patterson? 

7

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ANNE W. PATTERSON, DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT 

OF STATE 

Ms. PATTERSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you Members of the Subcommittee. 

I am grateful for the opportunity to testify on the Office of the 

Inspector General’s work on the Diversity Visa Program. I will 

summarize my written statement regarding OIG’s report last fall, 

our findings and recommendations, and the Department’s progress 

in responding to them. 

As you mentioned, the program authorizes up to 50,000 immigrant visas annually to persons from countries who are underrepresented among the approximately one million immigrants to the 

U.S. each year. 

Last fall, the program moved away from its traditional paperbased application system and was held over the Internet. This new 

application system is based at the Kentucky Consular Center, 

which I visited last week. The technological advances appear to be 

significant. 

Newly registered electronic winners are just beginning to be notified to start the visa application process. As they move along in the 

process, facial and name recognition technology will check each 

winner against the database of other applicants to identify duplicate entries. The Department believes, once the program operates 

using the full technology available, fraud will be less likely to 

occur. Since our previous review took place prior to electronic registration, we plan to reexamine the program to determine if some 

of the vulnerabilities we identified have been addressed. 

In our report, we recommended applicants from states that sponsor terrorism be barred from the Diversity Visa Program. We believe this is a serious vulnerability. The Department agrees with 

OIG in principle, but expressed concerns over the effect of permanently barring aliens who are fleeing oppressive regimes, such as 

Cuba, Libya, Syria and Iran. Moreover, the Department believes 

consular procedures and heightened awareness provide safeguards 

against terrorists since the Diversity Visa applicant must fulfill all 

of the standard requirements of an immigrant visa. In addition, by 

October, all immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applicants will have 

their index fingers digitally scanned and checked against a database. 

Although these measures and several others tighten the program, we remain concerned that hostile intelligence officers, criminals and terrorists could use the program to enter our country as 

permanent residents. It may be advisable to consider legislation 

similar to the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Act of 

2002. This bars the issuance of visas to aliens from states sponsoring terrorism unless the Secretary decides that recipients do not 

pose a risk to our national security. 

Our report also pointed out widespread abuse in the Diversity 

Visa Program. Much of this is tied to applicant pools which predate 

electronic registration. I provided some examples of fraud in my 

written statement. The Kentucky Consular Center continues to detect thousands of duplicates each year. Currently, the penalty for 

submitting detected duplicate entries is disqualification for the 

8

year that the duplicate submission was detected. Applicants who 

also file under a false identity and fraudulent documents are commonplace since many countries have little control over their vital 

records. As a result, OIG recommended that the Department propose changing the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar permanently from future lottery programs all adult applicants who are 

identified as multiple filers. 

While Department officials agree, the law only makes someone 

ineligible for a visa on the basis of fraud or willful material misrepresentations. In the case of Diversity Visa applicants, it is unclear whether submitting multiple lottery entries is illegal. While 

we welcome the Department’s agreement on this issue, it is inherently unfair that applicants who play by the rules are disadvantaged. Clarifying legislation might provide a basis to eliminate 

multiple filers. 

Unlike other visa applications, the current Diversity Visa processing fee is collected only from applicants selected as winners. 

Millions of applicants pay nothing to participate. For fiscal 2002, 

the Department estimated that program costs not covered by the 

fee were about $840,000. OIG recommended that the Department 

seek authority to collect processing fees from everybody who applies. In addition, many embassies that issue large numbers of Diversity Visas have small Fraud Units or none at all. As a result, 

we recommended that the Department determine whether antifraud field investigations would be useful in Diversity Visa cases 

and how the Diversity Visa fee could be devoted to antifraud work 

at overseas missions. 

The Department considered self-financing of this program to be 

impractical, at least under the old paper-based system. But with 

electronic filing, applicants could pay a small fee for registration, 

enabling the U.S. Government to recoup costs and fund more fraud 

prevention officers overseas. Such an approach might also reduce 

multiple applications, since entry would no longer be free. 

We also determined the Department could do a better job of identifying all costs associated with the Diversity Visa Program from 

overseas posts. Section 636 of Public Law 104–208 provides for 

charging a fee associated with the Diversity Visa Program, which 

currently is charged only to program winners. Perhaps legislation 

would allow the Department to expand fee collection to include all 

applicants and fund antifraud investigators. 

To conclude, Mr. Chairman, the Department and the Bureau of 

Consular Affairs have made progress in reducing fraud and 

vulnerabilities. We believe applicants from state sponsors of terrorism should be excluded, that multiple applicants should be penalized and that the program should charge application fees that 

would enable the Department to recoup its costs for hiring more 

people and would reduce the number of multiple applicants. 

OIG will undertake a follow-up review, and we will continue to 

work with the Department and with the Congress to recommend 

improvements. 

Thank you very much, and I would be happy to answer any questions. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Patterson follows:]

9

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ANNE W. PATTERSON

Chairman Hostettler, Representative Jackson Lee, and Members of the Subcommittee: 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) 

work concerning the Department’s Diversity Visa Program. I would like to discuss 

with you the findings and recommendations of our report last fall and the Department’s progress in responding to our recommendations. I would also note that OIG 

has a good working relationship with the Department and is conducting ongoing 

work concerning consular operations to strengthen consular programs and identify 

methods to reduce fraud in visa and passport programs. The Department has taken 

some steps toward addressing OIG’s recommendations. However, legislative changes 

may be needed to effectively address current Diversity Visa Program vulnerabilities, 

including barring applicants from states sponsoring terrorism, barring applicants 

with multiple filings, and ensuring that the program is self-financing. 

BACKGROUND

In FY 1995, Congress established a Diversity Visa Program that authorized up 

to 50,000 immigrant visas annually to persons from countries that were underrepresented among the 400,000 to 500,000 immigrants coming to the United States 

each year. Most immigration to the United States is based upon family relationships 

or employment. Diversity visa applicants, however, can qualify on the basis of education and/or work experience. Applicants need only to demonstrate that they have 

the equivalent of a U.S. high school education or two years of work experience in 

an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience. If ultimately selected as lottery winners, like other immigrant applicants, they are subject 

to all of the grounds upon which a visa can be denied, including medical condition 

and criminal behavior. 

Originally, the Diversity Visa Program was one of many immigrant visa functions 

assigned to the National Visa Center at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In September 

2000, diversity visa processing was moved to a newly remodeled site at Williamsburg, Kentucky, the Kentucky Consular Center (KCC). Unlike earlier lottery programs, KCC processes lottery applications in the United States, thereby relieving 

overseas missions of many clerical and file storage responsibilities. Kentucky Consular Center employees receive and process lottery entries, select winners, process 

winners’ visa applications, and schedule applicant interviews at missions abroad. 

Consular officers at those missions issue or deny the applications. 

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE DIVERSITY VISA PROGRAM

Last week, I toured the Kentucky Consular Center. I was impressed with the center’s ability to eliminate duplicate entries based on addresses and names electronically, including the use of facial recognition technology. I am sure that the Bureau 

of Consular Affairs would welcome members of your staff to visit the center to see 

this technology first hand. The technology can do the many procedures that simply 

were not possible when seven million or fifteen million envelopes came in by hand. 

Until this year, the diversity visa lottery was paper-based, which the Department 

characterized as labor intensive, inefficient, and costly. However, this year the Department implemented an entirely electronic registration system called E-DV for the 

DV–2005 lottery, which received nearly six million entries via the Internet during 

the two-month registration period. I should note also that our review took place 

prior to E-DV’s initiation, which occurred between November 1 and December 30, 

2003. Therefore, OIG plans to reexamine its previous findings in the context of this 

new technology. OIG will do this along with other ongoing consular program reviews 

and will continue to recommend ways to strengthen these programs. 

OIG’s ongoing consular work has identified fraud that includes the Diversity Visa 

Program, although, these incidents seem to be tied to applicant pools that pre-date 

the E-DV program registration. At one post, we discovered that some applicants 

submitted duplicate applications using similar photos that were undetected by the 

facial recognition technology. At another post, we discovered a common scheme used 

by some Foreign Service national employees, who offer to buy winning lottery applications, taking advantage of the fact that many people cannot afford the full costs 

associated with the visa process. In these cases, FSNs offered to purchase winning 

applications for up to $4,000. Once in possession of the winning applications, FSNs 

would switch the photographs with imposters, who paid several times over the original purchase price. In some cases, FSNs switch entire application packages. 

At this point in the E-DV program, lottery winners are just beginning to be notified to start the visa application process. Using facial and name recognition techVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:04 Jun 30, 2004 Jkt 089266 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 G:\WORK\IMMIG\042904\93387.000 HJUD1 PsN: 93387
10

nology and data mining techniques, each winner will be checked against the database of all other applicants to identify duplicate entries, which will result in disqualification. The Department believes once E-DV is further implemented, these 

types of fraud will be less likely to occur. Our future work will assess whether these 

vulnerabilities have been fully addressed. 

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In terms of our original diversity visa review, we note that section 306 of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Act of 2002 (Pub. L 107–173) generally 

prohibits issuance of nonimmigrant visas to aliens from state sponsors of terrorism 

unless the Secretary of State judges that they do not pose a risk to the national 

security of the United States. There are no parallel restrictions for immigrant visas, 

including the Diversity Visa Program. Because of this, and because of the program’s 

vulnerability to fraud and its ease of application, OIG believes that this program 

contains significant vulnerabilities to national security as hostile intelligence officers, criminals, and terrorists attempt to use it to enter the United States as permanent residents. As a result of this finding, OIG recommended that the Department 

propose changes to the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar from the Diversity 

Visa application process applicants from nations that sponsor terrorism. 

The Department agrees with OIG in principal regarding this recommendation, but 

has expressed concerns over the subsequent effect of permanently barring aliens 

who are fleeing the oppressive regimes of states that sponsor terrorism. For example, aliens fleeing oppression in countries such as Cuba, Libya, Syria, and Iran 

would be ineligible to apply for a visa via the Diversity Visa Program if our recommendation were implemented. 

It is also true that consular procedures and heightened awareness will provide 

greater safeguards against terrorists entering through the diversity visa process. 

Consular officers interview all diversity visa winners and check police and medical 

records once applicants begin the actual visa application process. By October of this 

year, all immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants will have their index fingers 

digitally scanned. This system is already in place at 17 of the Department’s immigrant visa sections and over 100 non-immigrant sections. In fact, all posts will have 

this capability by the end of October. This means that fingerprints can be run 

through U.S. databases of criminals and terrorists in about 15 minutes. It also 

means that if an applicant applies for a non-immigrant visa as Mr. Smith and later 

applies for a diversity visa under a different name, the fingerprint system will identify him as a fraudulent applicant. The electronic registration system should reduce 

fraud and reduce the burden on our consular officers. It is also worth observing that 

in Bangladesh, consular officers rejected 85 percent of the 2002 diversity visa winners using the visa application process, indicating that the consular office at that 

post has been very alert to the propensity for fraud. 

OIG’s report pointed out widespread abuse in the Diversity Visa Program. Despite 

the strictures against duplicate submissions, the Kentucky Consular Center detects 

thousands of duplicates each year. Currently, the penalty for submitting detected 

duplicate entries is disqualification for the year that the duplicate submission was 

detected. Identity fraud, meanwhile, is endemic, and fraudulent documents are commonplace. Many countries exercise poor control over their vital records and identity 

documents, exacerbating the potential for program abuse. In some countries, control 

is so poor that consular officers must assume that all travel, identity, and civil documents are unreliable. As a result, OIG recommended that the Department propose 

changing the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to bar permanently from future diversity lottery programs all adult applicants who are identified as multiple 

filers. 

The Department told OIG that it agrees with this recommendation and is currently reviewing the legal ramifications of our recommendation. Current provisions 

of INA 212(a)(6)(C) only renders persons as ineligible for a visa on the basis of fraud 

or willful material misrepresentations. In the case of diversity visa applicants, it is 

unclear whether submitting multiple lottery entries constitutes material misrepresentation. The Department has additional concerns over permanently eliminating 

applicants unfairly and permanently if, for example, applicants have no knowledge 

or involvement with the submission of multiple lottery entries. While OIG welcomes 

the Department’s agreement on this issue, perhaps clarifying legislation would provide a means to permanently eliminate multiple filers from the program. 

Several offices and officers in CA’s Directorate of Visa Services (CA/VO) manage 

and oversee parts of the Diversity Visa Program and OIG believes that management 

needs to be tightened. Missions do not have current written guidance on what is, 

country by country, the equivalent of a U.S. high school education. Many missions 

11

do not have the personnel or language resources to determine which applicants 

qualify through training or work experience. CA/VO prepares an annual statistical 

report for the Congress on diversity visa issuances, but does not include much trend 

analysis for the Kentucky Consular Center, overseas missions, or senior CA management. OIG recommended that the Department issue standards for determining 

whether foreign high school educations are comparable to U.S. high school educations. OIG believes the Department should also prepare an annual report on regional and worldwide diversity visa trends and program issues. 

Responding to this recommendation, the Department recently purchased a newly 

published reference book that translates and standardizes foreign educational credentials for use in validating educational requirements of applicants and is planning 

to distribute a copy to all diversity visa posts. The Department is preparing a report 

on trends and issues for the recently completed DV–2003 program. OIG considers 

this as a first step toward establishing guidance for this program. In terms of our 

recommendation that the Department prepare an annual report, we understand 

that the Department is summarizing the demographic data trends and identifying 

program issues revealed through its diversity visa database. We look forward to receiving this data and observing what it shows in terms of fraud indicators and other 

program trends. 

Unlike other visa applications, the current diversity visa processing fee is collected only from applicants selected as winners. Millions of applicants, therefore, 

pay nothing to participate, and the U.S. government pays all costs not covered by 

the diversity visa fee. For fiscal 2002, the Department estimated that program costs 

not covered by the fee exceeded $840,000. Since program shortfalls persist, OIG recommended that the Department seek authority to collect processing fees from all 

persons who apply for the diversity visa program. In addition, OIG determined that 

no current diversity visa fees are allotted to fraud prevention. Antifraud activities 

at post are generally dominated by nonimmigrant visa fraud cases. Many embassies 

and consulates with significant diversity visa issues, therefore, do not routinely refer 

problem cases to their antifraud units, and some missions have no antifraud units. 

As a result, OIG recommended that the Department determine whether antifraud 

field investigations are useful in diversity visa cases and how the diversity visa fee 

could be appropriately devoted to antifraud work at overseas missions. 

The Department charges nothing for entry into the program and has determined 

that charging a small fee for the paper-based registration system is impractical. Although OIG agrees that an application fee for paper-based applications may not be 

feasible, the new electronic system may open the door for charging a fee that will 

cover program costs and the associated administrative costs. According to a sample 

taken from one region of applicants, about 50 percent of applicants apply from the 

United States and 70 percent of applicants already use a facilitator to assist with 

registration. Many of these facilitators can be found on the Internet and charge fees 

for services. Using an electronic payment system, applicants could pay a small fee 

for diversity visa registration, enabling the U.S. government to recoup costs and 

fund more fraud prevention officers overseas, especially in countries with critical 

fraud problems. Such an approach might also reduce multiple entries since applications would no longer be free. Further, OIG determined that the Department could 

do a better job of identifying all costs associated with the Diversity Visa Program 

from overseas posts. Currently, that information is not fully reported. Further, section 636 of Public Law 104–208 provides for charging a fee associated with the Diversity Visa Program, which currently is charged only to program winners. Perhaps 

clarifying legislation would allow the Department to expand fee collection to include 

all program applicants and fund anti-fraud investigators. 

When OIG began its review of the Diversity Visa Program, there was no antifraud 

officer position at the Kentucky Consular Center. OIG has been advised that a position now is approved for that facility and an officer soon will be in place to coordinate antifraud issues and policies. When I visited the center last week, the Department affirmed that they were in the process of bringing an antifraud officer on 

board. At the time of our review, only the center’s director was an experienced consular officer. OIG also recommended workload studies to determine whether a fulltime visa officer position and a language-designated telephone inquiry position 

should be established at the Kentucky Consular Center. 

With regard to OIG’s recommendation to establish a language-designated telephone inquiry position, the Department determined that, since no predominating 

language exists among diversity visa applicants other than English, the Department 

is considering the idea of switching foreign language inquiries to the National Visa 

Center, where employees speak 40 different languages. OIG endorses this idea since 

it appears to be feasible. 

12

CONCLUSIONS

To sum up, Mr. Chairman, the Department and the Bureau of Consular Affairs 

have made progress in reducing fraud and vulnerabilities by implementing the facial recognition system for diversity visa applicants. Certainly, our contacts with the 

Bureau of Consular Affairs and consular officers overseas indicated a widespread 

understanding of the shortcomings of the program. In OIG, we believe that applicants from state sponsors of terrorism should be excluded, that multiple applicants 

should be penalized, and that the program should charge application fees that would 

enable the Department to recoup its costs for hiring more people and would reduce 

the number of multiple applicants. My experienced consular inspectors have also 

suggested a possible improvement, excluding from the program countries with extremely high levels of fraud. Most of these recommended changes will require legislation. We plan to review this program in the next few months in light of the 

changes in technology and the widespread public and congressional interest. We will 

continue to work with the Department and with the Congress to recommend solutions to these issues. 

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I am happy to answer your questions and those of 

other subcommittee members at the appropriate time.

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Thank you, Ambassador. 

Professor Ting? 

STATEMENT OF JAN TING, PROFESSOR OF LAW, TEMPLE 

UNIVERSITY JAMES E. BEASLEY SCHOOL OF LAW 

Mr. TING. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

In summarizing my written testimony, I would like to note that 

I have three main objections to the Diversity Visa Lottery. 

First, the lottery is unfair and expressly discriminatory on the 

basis of ethnicity and implicitly race; 

Second, the lottery does not serve, and is inconsistent with, the 

priorities and best interests of the United States, as otherwise expressed in our immigration laws; 

And, third, the lottery is incomprehensibly complicated, a cruel 

deception of the overwhelming majority of the millions of would-be 

immigrants who apply for it every year, and as Ambassador Patterson’s written testimony today suggests to me, unadministrable. 

First, it is not an overstatement to say, as I have, that the history of U.S. immigration law is the history of Asian exclusion from 

the United States. Legal restrictions on immigration to the U.S. 

were not enacted until the late 19th century, when immigrants 

began arriving from Asia. The first court test of U.S. immigration 

law, one of the first cases read today by any student of U.S. immigration law, is the Chinese Exclusion case of 1889, in which the 

U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of 

the Chinese Exclusion Act. This law initiated 61 years of explicit 

Chinese exclusion from the United States. 

The Supreme Court, sustaining the statute against constitutional 

challenge, provides the legal and constitutional authority for the 

modern system of restrictive immigration law and border control 

we have today. This and other Asian exclusion cases are the legal 

foundation for the U.S. immigration system. 

Even after the repeal of the discriminatory National Origins 

Quota System in 1965, vestiges of Asian exclusion remain in our 

immigration laws. One of those vestiges is the per-country cap of 

Section 202(a)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which 

currently obliges qualified immigrants from India, the Philippines 

and Mexico to wait longer, sometimes significantly longer, for imVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:04 Jun 30, 2004 Jkt 089266 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 G:\WORK\IMMIG\042904\93387.000 HJUD1 PsN: 93387
13

migrant visas than equally qualified immigrants from all other 

countries. 

The other vestige of Asian exclusion in our immigration law is 

the Diversity Visa Lottery, from which most Asians, all Mexicans 

and some other Latin Americans have been excluded from the very 

first year of Diversity Visas, which in my written testimony I note 

actually began in 1987. The 14 countries whose nationals were disqualified from the DV Lottery for fiscal year 2004 include China, 

India, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam. The 

other disqualified countries for fiscal year 2004 are Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico 

and the United Kingdom, except for Northern Ireland. 

Would-be immigrants from these 14 countries and other countries in other years have been excluded from the Diversity Visa 

Lottery solely on the basis of their ethnicity. I find it difficult to 

justify this current discrimination as a remedy for the adverse impact of the 1965 immigration reform abolishing discriminatory ethnic quotas. When discrimination against women, minorities and the 

handicapped is ended by law, should able-bodied white males receive a legal remedy because they have been adversely affected by 

having to compete against others who are finally treated equally? 

In any area of American law, except immigration law, the explicit 

discrimination of the Diversity Visa Lottery would fail the constitutional test of strict scrutiny for lack of a compelling governmental 

purpose. As the Chairman noted, these visas have been called antidiversity visas since they were created to offset the diversity which 

would otherwise result from nondiscriminatory immigration. 

The second objection I have is that the two primary priorities 

Congress has identified for our immigration system, which I must 

say is the most generous in the world, those two priorities are family reunification and work skills. While we can debate the extent 

to which Congress has correctly balanced these two priorities or the 

extent to which Congress should extend each of these priorities, 

there can be no doubt that each is designed and intended to benefit 

the people of the United States. 

In comparison, the benefit, if any, of Diversity Visas to the people of the United States is highly questionable and far from clear. 

Current law makes the spouses and minor children of legal permanent resident aliens wait in a queue from which 5-year-old applications are just now being processed. Spouses and children of Mexican LPRs—legal permanent residents—wait in an even longer line 

from which applications more than 7 years old are just now being 

processed. The resulting separations have caused so much suffering 

and misery that Congress has had to create a temporary visa category for such spouses and children whose petitions have been 

pending for at least 3 years. How can it make sense to give out 

50,000 immigrant visas each year in a discriminatory lottery, when 

admissible spouses and minor children of legal permanent residents are kept out of the United States, making family reunification impossible? 

Winners of Diversity Visa Lotteries are admitted even in the absence of job skills or family ties to the United States. How does this 

help the United States? 

14

1Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law; formerly Assistant Commissioner, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) from 1990 to 1993. 2 1993 Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (1994), chart A at 

12. 3See Aleinikoff, Martin and Motomura, Immigration and Citizenship (Thomson West, 5th ed., 

2003), pages 282–284; Legomsky, Immigration and Refugee Law and Policy (Foundation Press, 

3rd ed., 2002), pages 235–241; Wolfsdorf and Rahman, The Diversity Visa Lottery, 77 No. 37 

Interpreter Releases 1365 (2000); Ting, ‘‘Other Than A Chinaman:: How U.S. Immigration Law 

Resulted From and Still Reflects a Policy of Excluding and Restricting Asian Immigration, 4 

Temple Pol. And Civil Rights L.R. 301 (1995). 4Legomsky, supra note 3, at 236 (citing 64 Interpreter Releases 291 (1987)). 

5 Ibid. (relying on the Immigration Amendments of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100–658, § 2, 102 Stat. 

3908). 6 Ibid. (referring to the Immigration Amendments of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100–658, § 3(b), 102 

Stat. 3908). 7See Diversity Visa Lottery Registration Set for Earlly 1995, 71 Interpreter Releases 1587 

(1994). 8Legomsky, supra note 3, at 236 (referring to the Immigration Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101– 649, § 132, 104 Stat. 4978, 5000). 9 Ibid. (referring to the Immigration Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101–649, § 132(c), 104 Stat. at 

5000). 10This number was effectively reduced to 50,000 beginning in FY 1999 by an annual offset 

of 5,000 to cover beneficiaries of the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NACARA), 

Pub. L. 105–100, § 203(c), 111 Stat. 2160 (1997). See Aleinikoff, supra note 3, at 281–282; 

Legomsky, supra note 3, at 236. 11 INA § 203(c), 8 U.S.C. § 1153(c). 

My last point is simply that the Diversity Visa Lottery is too 

complicated, burdensome and arbitrary. I rely upon the testimony 

of Ambassador Patterson, and I second the testimony of Dr. 

Camarota on that record, but my time is up and so I will stop here. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Ting follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JAN TING 1

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee. I am grateful for your invitation to speak today to discuss the Diversity Visa Lottery with you and with the 

other presenters. 

After Congress in 1965 finally repealed the racially and ethnically discriminatory 

national origins immigration quota system, the proportion of non-European immigrants—especially those from Asia—to the United States increased significantly.2

By 1986, members of Congress were seeking to ameliorate the corresponding reduction in European immigration which was an unexpected byproduct of the 1965 legislation.3 The so-called NP–5 program provided 5,000 non-preference visas for 1987 

and the same number for 1988. Because eligibility for those visas was limited to natives of countries ‘‘adversely affected by’’ the 1965 immigration reform, the countries 

receiving the most visas turned out to be Ireland, Canada, and the United Kingdom.4

Encouraged by this desired result, Congress extended the program and increased 

the visas available to 15,000 each year for 1989 and 1990.5 The same statute established the successor OP–1 program which offered an additional 10,000 visas each 

year for 1990 and 1991 in a lottery open only to those countries which used up less 

than 25% of the maximum per country cap allowable.6 Thus would-be immigrants 

from China, India, Mexico, the Philippines, and other high immigration countries 

continued to be ineligible for diversity visas.7

Continuing Congressional unhappiness with the predominantly Asian and Latin 

American character of immigration, and corresponding satisfaction with the success 

of the diversity visa programs in leavening the immigration mix with more Europeans, were reflected the Immigration Act of 1990. For the fiscal years of 1992, 

1993, and 1994, a complex statutory scheme was enacted for the so-called AA–1 program which provided 40,000 visas each year in a lottery from which most Asian and 

Latin American intending immigrants were excluded.8

To insure that Congressional intent was implemented, the 1990 Act in a curiously 

indirect and camouflaged way, effectively directed that at least 40% of each year’s AA–1 visas, or 16,000, be issued to citizens of one European country, Ireland.9 The 

same 1990 Act increased the number of diversity visas to the current level of 55,000 

annually.10 The deliberately complex formula for assigning these visas arbitrarily 

disqualifies all natives from countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants in a 

five-year period under the regular family and employment preferences.11

15

12See Ting, supra note 3. 13 Chae Chan Ping v. United States, 130 U.S. 581 (1889). 14 Chinese Exclusion Act, ch. 126, 22 Stat. 58 (1882). 15The Chinese Exclusion Case was cited with approval in 2001 by Justice Breyer in Zadvydas

v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001), though for its dictim that even sovereign powers are ‘‘restricted 

in their exercise only by the Constitution itself and considerations of public policy and justice.’’

See also Sanmuganathan Nakeswaran v. INS, 23 F.3d 394 (1st Cir. 1994) (quoting Kleindienst 

v. Mandel, 408 U.S. 753, 769–770 (1972)) where the First Circuit cites Chinese Exclusion for the 

proposition that ‘‘plenary congressional power to make policies and rules for exclusion of aliens 

has long been firmly established.’’ 16Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 698 (1893). See Ting, supra note 2, at 304–305. 17 Ibid. at 730. 18 Nationality Act, ch. 876, 54 Stat. 1137, 1140 (1940). 19See Immigration and Nationality Act, ch. 477, §§ 201(a), 202(e), 66 Stat. 163 (1952). See 

Ting, supra note 2, footnotes 32 and 33, pages 305–306. 20See Act of Oct. 3, 1965, Pub. L. No. 89–236 § 201(e), 79 Stat. 911 (terminating the quota 

system as of June 30, 1968). 

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE DIVERSITY VISA LOTTERY?

I have three main objections to the diversity visa lottery: 1. The lottery is unfair 

and expressly discriminatory on the basis of ethnicity and, implicitly, race. Whether 

or not this is legal, it is not good policy. 2. The lottery does not serve and is inconsistent with the priorities and best interests of the United States as otherwise expressed in our immigration laws. 3. The lottery is incomprehensibly complicated, an 

administrative burden, and a cruel deception of the overwhelming majority of the 

millions of would-be immigrants who apply for it each year. 

I. IT’S UNFAIR AND DISCRIMINATORY. 

It is not an overstatement to say, as I have, that the history of U.S immigration 

law is the history of Asian exclusion from the United States.12 Legal restrictions on 

immigration to the U.S. were not enacted until the late 19th century when immigrants began arriving from Asia. The first court test of U.S immigration law, and 

one of the first cases read today by any student of U.S. immigration law is the socalled Chinese Exclusion Case 13 of 1889 in which the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the Chinese Exclusion Act 14 of 1882. This 

law initiated 61 years of explicit Chinese exclusion from the United States. The Supreme Court’s sustaining this statute against constitutional challenge provides the 

legal and constitutional authority for the modern system of restrictive immigration 

law and border control.15

In 1893, in a second landmark immigration opinion, a divided Supreme Court 

upheld the deportation of a Chinese laborer who could not produce as required by 

a revised Chinese Exclusion Act ‘‘at least one credible white witness’’ to testify he 

was a lawful resident.16 In upholding the power of Congress to order deportation 

of immigration law violators, the Supreme Court determined that deportation is not 

criminal punishment, and therefore that constitutional requirements of due process, 

trial by jury, and the prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures, as 

well as against cruel and unusual punishments, have no application in deportation 

proceedings.17 Like its predecessor, the Chinese Exclusion Case, Fong Yue Ting v. 

United States remains good law and is routinely studied and taught in U.S. law 

school courses on immigration law. 

The Nationality Act of 1940 codified the existing laws on naturalization by specifying that the right to become a naturalized citizen ‘‘shall extend only to white persons, persons of African nativity or descent, and descendents of races indigenous to 

the Western hemisphere,’’ 18 i.e. not Asians. When explicitly exclusionary anti-Asian 

statutes were repealed in the 1940’s and 1950’s, Asians received the smallest possible immigration quotas under the national origins quota system.19

After repeal of the national origins quota system in 1965,20 only vestiges of Asian 

exclusion remain in our immigration laws. One of those vestiges is the per-country 

cap of INA § 202(a)(2), 8 U.S.C. § 1152(a)(2), which currently obliges qualified immigrants from India, the Philippines and Mexico to wait longer, sometimes significantly longer, for immigrant visas than equally qualified immigrants from all other 

16

21See the State Department’s Visa Bulletin for any month. The Visa Bulletin for April, 2004, 

is reprinted at 84 Interpreter Releases 351, 367 (March 15, 2004). See also the discussion of 

per-country caps at Ting, supra note 2, at 308. 22See for example the State Department’s Visa Bulletin for November 1994, reprinted in 

Aleinikoff, Martin and Motomura, Immigration Process and Policy (West, 3rd ed., 1995) at p. 

135. 23 Aleinikoff, supra note 3, at p. 282. 24Legomsky, supra note 3, at 241. 25For FY 2002, see 2002 INS Statistical Yearbook, Table 8, available on-line at http://

uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/IMM02yrbk/IMM20002.pdf. For FY 2001 see 

2001 INS Statistical Yearbook, Table 8, quoted in Aleinikoff, supra note 3, at 283. 26 It should be noted that our immigration laws and policy are the most generous in the world. 

We admit each year more legal permanent residents with opportunity to become citizens than 

all the rest of the nations of the world combined. 27 INA § 203(a),(b), 8 U.S.C. § 1153(a),(b). 

countries.21 Until well into the 1990’s, immigrants from China also suffered from 

the discrimination of the per-country cap.22

The other vestige of Asian exclusion in our immigration law is the diversity visa 

lottery from which most Asians, all Mexicans, and some other Latin Americans have 

been excluded from the very first year of diversity visas in 1987. The 14 countries 

whose nationals were disqualified from the Diversity Visa Lottery for FY 2004 include China, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Vietnam. The other 

disqualified countries for FY 2004 are Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, 

El Salvador, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, and the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland!).23

Would-be immigrants from these 14 countries (and other countries in other years) 

have been excluded from the Diversity Visa Lottery solely on the basis of their ethnicity. I find it difficult to justify this current discrimination as a remedy for the 

adverse impact of the 1965 immigration reform abolishing discriminatory ethnic 

quotas. When discrimination against women, minorities and the handicapped is 

ended by law, should able-bodied white males receive a legal remedy because they 

have been adversely affected by having to compete against others who are finally 

treated equally? 

Students of immigration law have correctly observed that the so-called diversity 

visas might properly be called anti-diversity visas, since they were created to offset 

the diversity resulting from non-discriminatory immigration.24

Yes, discrimination in the Diversity Visa Lottery is constitutional, just as Chinese 

Exclusion was constitutional, and the deportation law requiring one credible white 

witness was constitutional, and the national origins quota system was constitutional. But that doesn’t make it either right or good public policy. The fact that 

beneficiaries of the Lottery now include significant numbers of Africans and 

Bangladeshis does not make the discrimination against other nationalities, solely 

because of ethnicity, any less objectionable. The most recent available statistics for 

FY 2001 and 2002 continue to show Europe as the number one regional source of 

diversity immigrants.25

II. IT’S INCONSISTENT WITH NATIONAL INTEREST, PRIORITIES. 

Academics can debate the question of whether we should put any limits on the 

number of immigrants admitted each year, or whether we should accept every single 

person in the whole wide world who wants to come here. Congress has decided to 

limit the number of immigrants admitted each year, and I have no doubt that the 

decision to put a limit on the number of immigrants admitted each year enjoys popular support.26

But having made the decision to set the number of admissions below the number 

of people who would like to immigrate, Congress must answer, and has answered 

the question, which would-be immigrants should we admit? We must necessarily 

have what I call a ‘‘pick and choose’’ system of immigration, where we pick and 

choose those who will be admitted as immigrants from all those who would like to 

be chosen. 

The two primary priorities Congress has chosen are family re-unification and 

work skills.27 While we can debate the extent to which Congress has correctly balanced these two priorities, or the extent to which Congress has extended each of 

these priorities, there can be no doubt that each of these priorities is designed and 

intended to benefit the people of the United States. In comparison, the benefit, if 

any, of diversity visas, to the people of the United States is debatable and far from 

clear. 

While we place no numerical limits on the admission of immediate relatives of 

U.S. citizens, current law makes the spouses and minor children of legal permanent 

17

28Supra, note 21. 29 Ibid. 30 INA § 101(a)(15)(V), 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(V). 31Supra, note 21. 32Preference immigrants now use up all available visa numbers. See Aleinikoff, supra, note 

3, at 282. 33Wolfsdorf, supra, note 3. 34The effective number of diversity visas was reduced from 55,000 to 50,000 by an annual 

set-aside of 5,000 visas each year for beneficiaries of the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central 

American Relief Act (NACARA), Pub. L. 105–100, 111 Stat. 2160 (1997). 35 Aleinikoff, supra., note 3, at 283. 36 INA § 203(c), 8 U.S.C. § 1153(c). 37 About 8.7 million applications received for the FY 2003 program. Aleinikoff, supra., note 3 

at 283. 38See ‘‘Federal Trade Commission Alleges Fraud by Visa Services Company’’ announcements 

by U.S. Dept. of State and Federal Trade Commission, updated 13 Nov. 2003, accessed at http:/

/usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2003/Nov/13–850792.html on April 24, 2004. 

resident aliens (LPR’s) wait in a queue from which five year old applications are 

just now being processed.28 Spouses and children of Mexican LPR’s wait in an even 

longer line from which applications more than seven years old are just now being 

processed.29 The resulting separations have caused so much suffering and misery 

that Congress has had to created a temporary visa category for such spouses and 

children whose petitions have been pending for at least 3 years.30

How can it make sense to give out 50,000 immigrant visas each year in a discriminatory lottery, when admissible spouses and minor children of LPR’s are kept 

out of the United States, making family re-unification impossible? 

And those are not the only admissible immigrants kept waiting in long queues 

while winners of the discriminatory lottery are admitted in their place. Unmarried 

adult children of U.S. citizens wait in a line nearly four years long (unless they are 

from Mexico or the Philippines in which case they must wait 10 years or 14 years 

respectively). Married children of U.S. citizens must wait seven years (9 years or 

14 years if from Mexico or the Philippines respectively). Admissible siblings of U.S. 

citizens must wait 12 years (13 years or 22 years if from India or the Philippines 

respectively).31 And no temporary visas have been made available for them while 

they wait. 

Winners of the diversity visa lottery are admitted even in the absence of any job 

skills or family ties to the United States. How does this help the United States? It 

is true that until about 1978 it was possible to gain admission as a ‘‘nonpreference’’ immigrant without such qualifications.32 And it has been argued that perhaps the 

visa lottery can be justified as a means to give hope to a large group of people wishing to immigrate to the U.S. but with no other way to acquire immigrant status.33

If it does provide hope, that hope is largely an illusion, since millions of applications are received each year for the 50,000 diversity visas made available.34 For the 

FY 2003 lottery held in October, 2001, about 8.7 million applications were received.35

Even if that slight hope were deemed sufficient to maintain a visa lottery, the ethnic discrimination should be ended in order to spread the hope worldwide, and the 

number could be cut back to 2,500 or 5,000, to provide additional visas for family 

reunification of relatives of LPR’s and U.S. citizens, which should be a higher priority. 

III. IT’S TOO COMPLICATED, BURDENSOME AND ARBITRARY. 

The complexity of the current statute providing for the diversity visa lottery 36 is 

comparable to that of the most complicated provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. 

Defenders of the lottery should be forced to read through the statute and apply it 

to calculate the number of visas allocable to each country. The sheer number of applications which must be processed each year compared to the number of diversity 

visas actually granted testifies to the waste of human and administrative resources.37

This complexity and burden on the U.S. government creates potential for abuse 

of the diversity visa system. What is for most foreigners the false illusion that they 

can gain legal admission to the U.S. through the lottery can make them susceptible 

to swindlers who claim inside knowledge and special connections in seeking to sell 

their services to assist applicants. This kind of abuse seems almost inevitable, and 

has drawn the attention of the Federal Trade Commission.38

Normal rules of chargeability may allow persons of one nationality to utilize a different nation of chargeability either to make themselves eligible or to improve their 

chances. For example, an alien from a high admission country, ineligible for a diverVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:04 Jun 30, 2004 Jkt 089266 PO 00000 Frm 00021 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 G:\WORK\IMMIG\042904\93387.000 HJUD1 PsN: 93387
18

39 INA § 202(b)(2), 8 U.S.C. § 1152(b)(2). 40 9 FAM 42.33 Note 6.8, accessed at http://foia.state.gov/masterdocs/09FAM/0942033N.PDF

on April 24, 2004. See also INA § 203(d), 8 U.S.C. § 1153(d). 41 9 FAM 42.33 Note 4.2, supra., Note 40. 42 9 FAM 42.33 Note 4.1, supra., Note 40. 43 INA § 202(b)(4), 8 U.S.C. § 1152(b)(4). 44See 9 FAM 42.33 Notes 7 and 8, supra., note 40. 

sity visa, may qualify for a derivative diversity visa as the spouse or child of an applicant from another country.39 And since marital status is determined not at the 

time of application or selection, but at the time of the principal applicant’s admission to the United States, anyone the applicant marries before admission to the 

U.S., even though not named on the application, is entitled to derivative status as 

a diversity immigrant.40

An alien from a high admissions country may apply for derivative chargeability 

through a spouse or parent of a different nationality even if the spouse or parent 

is not himself or herself applying for the diversity visa lottery. In such cases, both 

persons are considered to be applicants for purposes of cross-chargeability, and both 

must be issued visas and apply for admission simultaneously.41

Because chargeability is determined primarily by place of birth,42 a national of 

an ineligible country may qualify for the lottery if born in an eligible country, e.g. 

the child of Chinese diplomats born in Malawi while parents were on temporary assignment there. Conversely, children born in ineligible countries while parents were 

on temporary assignment, may claim the chargeability of the foreign state of either 

parent.43

The statutory requirements of a high school education ‘‘or its equivalent’’ or ‘‘at 

least 2 years work experience in an occupation which requires at least 2 years of 

training or experience’’ are also challenging and problematic.44

These are not problems that need to be or can be corrected. In my opinion they 

are inherent in the notion of a diversity visa lottery. Instead of trying to get the 

diversity visa lottery to work better, we should get to the root of the problems by 

abolishing the discriminatory visa lottery itself. 

IN CONCLUSION

I urge this subcommittee to endorse repeal of the diversity visa lottery in order 

to end this aspect of ethnic discrimination in our immigration law, re-allocate visa 

numbers to conform with our acknowledged immigration priorities, and to simplify 

U.S. immigration law and end the waste of human and administrative resources. 

I thank the chairman and the members of the subcommittee for the privilege of 

presenting my views on this subject. 

ATTACHMENT

TEMPLE INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW JOURNAL

FALL 2003

ARTICLES

IMMIGRATION LAW REFORM AFTER 9/11:

WHAT HAS BEEN AND WHAT STILL NEEDS TO BE DONE

JAN TING

COPYRIGHT  2003

TEMPLE INTERNATIONAL & COMPARATIVE LAW JOURNAL; JAN TING

I. INTRODUCTION

So here we are, eighteen months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 

(9/11), and the most significant event of the past eighteen months is what did not 

happen. The United States has not experienced another terrorist attack on the scale 

of 9/11. Would any of us have dared to so predict eighteen months ago? 

Why have we experienced no repetition of 9/11? Have the terrorists lost interest, 

or perhaps had a change of heart? Have they concluded after all that America is 

basically good? No one can doubt after 9/11 the willingness of terrorists to use weapons of mass destruction against us if, and as soon as, they can get their hands on 

them. 

19

1 Jodi Wilgoren, Prosecutors Begin Effort to Interview 5,000, but Basic Questions Remain, 

N.Y. Times, Nov. 15, 2001, at B7. 2 Neil A. Lewis, I.N.S. to Focus on Muslims Who Evade Deportation, N.Y. Times, Jan. 9, 2002, 

at A12. 3 Registration of Certain Nonimmigrant Aliens from Designated Countries, 67 Fed. Reg. 

67,766 (Nov. 6, 2002). 4The twenty additional countries are as follows: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, 

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, and Kuwait. 5See The Chinese Exclusion Case, 130 U.S. 581, 604 (1889) (upholding unanimously the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was cited with approval by Justice Breyer writing for the majority 

in Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, 695 (2001)); see also Hitai v. INS, 343 F.2d 466 (2nd Cir. 

1965) (sustaining the pre-1965 national-origins quota system even to the extent that it required 

a Brazilian citizen of Japanese ancestry to apply for the small Japanese quota instead of being 

treated like other citizens of Brazil). 6See Narenji v. Civiletti, 617 F.2d 745 (D.C. Cir., 1979), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 957 (1980). 7 Narenji, 476 U.S. at 957. 

Is it mere coincidence that since 9/11 the U.S. government and its allies have 

waged war on, pursued, and disrupted the efforts of terrorists around the world, including those in Afghanistan, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and on the 

home front? While Osama bin Laden has so far eluded us, everyone can understand 

that terrorists on the run and trying to hide are less dangerous and less able to 

launch new terrorist attacks than those who are not. 

Changes in U.S. immigration policy have been part of the U.S. war on terrorism 

since 9/11. These initiatives by the U.S. government have drawn objections and protests. My greatest concern about the national security initiatives enacted since 9/

11 is whether the United States is doing enough. 

This paper will explain why the objections and protests against the war on terrorism are unfounded and will propose additional immigration policy reforms in its 

support. 

II. PROFILING AND THE SHADOW OF THE INTERNMENT

Several immigration-related initiatives of the U.S. government since 9/11 have 

raised concerns about racial profiling and motivated comparisons to the internment 

of Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans by the U.S. government during World 

War II. The first of these initiatives was the effort, announced by the Department 

of Justice (DOJ) on November 9, 2001, to conduct voluntary interviews of up to 

5,000 young men from countries suspected of harboring terrorists who had entered 

the United States as temporary visitors since January 1, 2000.1

The second controversial initiative, announced by the DOJ on January 8, 2002, 

prioritized the apprehension and removal from the United States of 4,000 to 6,000 

men from particular countries of origin, out of more than 300,000 ‘‘absconders’’ whose deportability has been finalized and who have exhausted their administrative 

and judicial appeal rights.2

A third initiative, announced on November 6, 2002, requires special registration 

of male visitors to the United States from specified countries.3 Initially limited to 

male visitors from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Syria, special registration has been 

expanded in phases to cover male visitors from another twenty countries.4

The allegation of racial and ethnic profiling in criticism of these initiatives was 

perhaps predictable. However, such concerns are misdirected. In fact, none of the 

three initiatives discriminate on the basis of appearance, skin color, race, ethnicity, 

or religion. The individuals subject to these initiatives are certainly being profiled, 

but the profiling is done on non-invidious factors, such as age, gender, and the objective immigration documents presented on entry to the United States, i.e., passports 

from designated countries. Legal precedent supports the legality and constitutionality of these initiatives. U.S. courts have recognized plenary power over immigration in the political branches of the U.S. government, and no constitutional challenge has ever been sustained against such discrimination by country of origin in 

screening immigrants or visitors to the United States.5

One prior case that is particularly relevant to the legality and constitutionality 

of these initiatives is the 1979 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District 

of Columbia, Narenji v. Civiletti,6 where the court upheld, against constitutional 

challenge, a Federal regulation imposing special registration requirements solely on 

Iranian students in the United States following the seizure of U.S. diplomats as hostages in Iran. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider an appeal from that 

opinion.7

Even if these government initiatives could somehow be construed as racial or ethnic profiling, that fact would not necessarily make the practices illegal, unconstituVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:04 Jun 30, 2004 Jkt 089266 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 G:\WORK\IMMIG\042904\93387.000 HJUD1 PsN: 93387
20

8See, e.g., Wygant v. Jackson Bd. of Educ., 476 U.S. 267, 274 (1986). 9 It is acknowledged here that Japanese immigrants were ineligible at the time to naturalize 

and become U.S. citizens, but that does not change the belief that internment of enemy aliens 

during wartime would be acceptable to most U.S. citizens, even in hindsight. 10See, e.g., S. Res. 1356, 107th Cong. (2002) (introducing this resolution was Senator Russell 

Feingold, resolving to study the facts and circumstances surrounding treatment of European 

Americans and European refugees during World War II). 11 James Kurth, Domestic Security and Muslim Immigrants, J. Hist Soc’y 409, 414–15 (2002) 

(writing about the significance of European Internment during World War II). 12The Untouchables (Paramount Studio 1987). 

tional, or wrong. U.S. citizens expect law enforcement to utilize racial or ethnic 

characteristics in seeking to apprehend criminal suspects and prevent further 

crimes. If, for example, the Ku Klux Klan was engaged in a bombing campaign 

against black churches, law enforcement in trying to prevent further bombings 

should be permitted to single out for attention all white males driving in the vicinity 

of black churches at night. 

Racial profiling by the government should be subjected to strict scrutiny.8 It 

should be permitted where the government has a compelling governmental purpose, 

and where there is no less invasive method of pursuing that compelling purpose. 

It is hard to imagine a more compelling purpose for the U.S. government than trying to prevent further terrorist attacks on its citizens like those of 9/11. 

Do these initiatives, as some suggest, put the United States on a slippery slope 

to something like the internment of Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans during World War II? One of the few, if not the only, good things to come out of the 

current war on terror has been the remembrance and reconsideration of the Japanese Internment, which had been fading from our collective memories. 

Most persons now agree that the Japanese Internment was wrong, but what exactly was objectionable about it? Two answers are offered. First, approximately twothirds of those interned without due process or any showing of reasonable cause 

were in fact U.S. citizens. If only enemy aliens had been detained during wartime, 

it is unlikely that such internment would even be remembered, much less remembered as objectionable.9 Second, the Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans were 

treated very differently from their German and Italian counterparts and from German-Americans and Italian-Americans. The latter were treated as individuals on a 

case-by-case basis, whereas the Japanese and Japanese-Americans within the restricted western United States were treated as a single group and subjected to internment solely on the basis of race and ethnicity. 

In comparison to the almost universal condemnation of the Japanese Internment, 

there have been almost no complaints about mistreatment of the other groups. Internment during World War II on a case-by-case basis of Germans, Italians, and 

their American citizen descendents is so unobjectionable that it has been largely forgotten by history. This is so despite the efforts of many to remember the internment,10 and despite the fact that from the German and Italian communities in the 

United States more than 10,000 individuals were interned from each community.11

Can it be concluded that history accepts wartime internment of suspected individuals as long as they are selected for internment on the basis of their individual 

statements and actions, and not on the basis of arbitrary racial or ethnic characteristics? Even in comparison to such internment, the initiatives of the U.S. government so far are pretty ‘‘small potatoes,’’ because they have been limited to individuals charged with specific criminal or immigration law violations or pursuant to 

Federal Court warrants. 

III. DETENTION AND IMMIGRATION LAW ENFORCEMENT AS ANTI-TERROR TOOLS

Much criticism has been directed at the U.S. government because of its arrest and 

detention of thousands of individuals since 9/11. Some of these individuals have 

been charged with criminal law violations. Some have been arrested and detained 

on material witness warrants issued by Federal Courts. But the overwhelming majority of those arrested and detained have been charged with immigration law violations, and the majority of those so charged have been brought before immigration 

judges who have ordered them deported from the United States. Is anything wrong 

here? 

It is common for prosecutors to believe individuals guilty of crimes, but not to 

have sufficient evidence to prove those charges in court. So then what do they do? 

Often they bring lesser charges for which they do have sufficient evidence. That is 

why the gangster Al Capone was never charged with murder, extortion, or bribery. 

As dramatized in the movie The Untouchables,12 starring Kevin Costner and Sean 

21

13This is regrettable because classroom dynamics improve when one or two advocates of open 

borders are available to articulate that position in classroom discussion. 14Prominent advocates of an open borders policy include the Cato Institute and the Editorial 

Board of the Wall Street Journal. 15 Reno v. Am.-Arab Anti-Discrimination Comm., 525 U.S. 471, 488, 491–92 (1999). 16William Glaberson, Closed Immigration Hearings Criticized as Prejudicial, N.Y. Times, Dec. 

7, 2001, at B7. 17 Neil A. Lewis & Don Van Natta, Jr., Ashcroft Offers Accounting of 641 Charged or Held, 

N.Y. Times, Nov. 28, 2001, at A1. 

Connery, Al Capone was charged, convicted, and imprisoned only for underpaying 

his income tax. Is anything wrong with that? 

Are immigrants somehow bearing the brunt of the war on terrorism? The most 

common ground for deportation is overstaying a temporary, non-immigrant visa. 

Even if the federal government does not believe an illegal alien is involved in terrorism, is there anything wrong with deporting aliens who overstay or violate the 

terms of their visas? Answer: Only if one believes that U.S. immigration laws should 

not be enforced. 

I always ask my immigration law classes to describe U.S. immigration policy during the first century of our history as a nation. After eliciting the correct answer 

as open borders, I then ask if anyone believes that such a policy is appropriate for 

the United States today. Usually, not a single person can be found to advocate open 

borders as U.S. policy today.13 The closed borders position, ending immigration entirely, typically also has no supporters. I then ask the class what they believe our 

policy should be. 

In the ensuing discussion, what emerges is the description of an immigration system pretty much like the one the United States actually has. Most Americans, like 

most students in my classes, want some immigration for the economic and cultural 

benefits it brings, but they don’t want unlimited immigration. Americans typically 

want the United States to decide how many and what kind of immigrants to admit 

each year, which may be referred to as a ‘‘pick and choose’’ system of limited immigration. The U.S. government should then admit only those aliens selected by U.S. 

citizens to be immigrants, and should refuse entry to all others. 

But what should be done with those aliens not selected by the United States to 

be immigrants, but who come to the United States anyway, in violation of U.S. 

rules? If the answer is to tolerate them or grant them amnesty, then the United 

States would not really have a ‘‘pick and choose’’ system of limited immigration. 

What the United States would have then is open borders, which are just fine if that 

is in fact what the citizenry wants.14 But it is not what U.S. citizens want. What 

U.S. citizens want is to ‘‘pick and choose.’’

So there is nothing per se wrong with simply enforcing U.S. immigration laws regardless of whether those removed are terrorist suspects or not. Such removals indirectly serve the war on terrorism by reducing the number of illegal aliens and the 

resulting culture of fraudulent documents among whom and in which foreign terrorists can conceal themselves. 

That the U.S. government lacks the resources to remove all of the estimated ten 

million illegal aliens from the United States at once ought not preclude the United 

States from removing some of them. To the allegation of selective enforcement, Justice Antonin Scalia has said: 

An alien unlawfully in this country has no constitutional right to assert selective 

enforcement as a defense against his deportation. . . . When an alien’s continuing 

presence in this country is in violation of the immigration laws, the Government 

does not offend the Constitution by deporting him for the additional reason that it 

believes him to be a member of an organization that supports terrorist activity.15

IV. CLOSED HEARINGS

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. DOJ initiated procedures to conduct 

closed immigration removal hearings for certain ‘‘special interest’’ aliens charged 

with immigration law violations, without the disclosure of information to the public.16 Attorney General John Ashcroft defended withholding the names of those 

aliens charged with immigration law violations, while noting their continuing access 

to lawyers of their choosing and to their families.17 He has noted two reasons for 

not providing a list of detainees. The first reason was the need to withhold valuable 

intelligence from the enemy, i.e., which of their agents may have been detained and 

22

18 Id. 19 Id. 20Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft, 303 F.3d 681 (6th Cir. 2002). 21 Id. at 682. 22 Id. at 682–83. 23 Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 555 (1980). 24Detroit Free Press, 303 F.3d at 695–96. 25 Id. at 696 (citing N. Jersey Media Group v. Ashcroft, 205 F. Supp. 2d 288, 301 (D. N.J. 

2002), rev’d, 308 F.3d 198 (3rd Cir 2002)). 26 Houchins v. KQED, 438 U.S. 1 (1978). 27Detroit Free Press, 303 F.3d at 696. 28 Id. at 704 (quoting Globe Newspaper v. Super. Ct., 457 U.S. 596, 606–7 (1982)). 29 Id. at 705 (quoting Press-Enterprise v. Super. Ct. of Cal., 478 U.S. 1, 10 (1985)). 30 Id. at 707–8. 31 Id. at 708. 32 N. Jersey Media Group, 308 F.3d at 198. 

which remain free.18 And the second reason was a respect for the privacy of the individuals detained.19

Lawsuits have been filed on behalf of media plaintiffs seeking access to the closed 

hearings and to the names of those detained pending hearing. These lawsuits have 

resulted in two conflicting opinions from the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Sixth 

Circuit and the Third Circuit. 

In the first case, Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft,20 which was published August 26, 

2002, Judge Damon Keith, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. 

Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, framed the issue as ‘‘whether 

the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution confers a public right of access to deportation hearings. If it does, then the government must make a showing to overcome that right.’’ 21 First, Judge Keith dismissed the traditional deference of the 

courts to the political branches in immigration cases as being limited to areas of 

‘‘substantive’’ immigration law, and not to issues of procedure.22 Second, he found 

it appropriate to apply the two-part test of Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia,23

in which the Supreme Court concluded that both past experience and public interest 

supported finding a First Amendment right of media plaintiffs to observe judicial 

proceedings.24

The key problem, however, is that deportation proceedings are not judicial in nature. They are administrative and entirely within the executive branch of government. Nonetheless, Judge Keith found such proceedings to be ‘‘quasi-judicial’’ in nature, citing with approval New Jersey Media Group v. Ashcroft.25 He therefore held 

the test of Richmond Newspapers to be applicable, and rejected the test of Houchins

v. KQED,26 where the Supreme Court rejected First Amendment claims of media 

plaintiffs to public access to a county jail.27

Applying the two-part test of Richmond Newspapers, Judge Keith found both a 

tradition of public access to deportation proceedings and a significant public interest 

in public access to deportation proceedings to insure fairness and prevent mistakes. 

Having found a First Amendment public right of access to deportation hearings, he 

turned to the question of whether the government had a sufficient reason for denial 

‘‘necessitated by a compelling governmental interest, and . . . narrowly tailored to 

serve that interest.’’ 28 ‘‘Moreover, [t]he interest is to be articulated along with findings specific enough that a reviewing court can determine whether the closure order 

was properly entered.’’ 29 He concluded that the government’s reasons for closure, 

though compelling, were not sufficiently particularized or narrowly tailored.30

Judge Keith found the government’s closure order in special interest removal 

hearings both over-inclusive, i.e., too broad and indiscriminate, and also under-inclusive, i.e., insufficient to prevent the disclosures of information by the detained 

aliens, their lawyers, or their families. Judge Keith affirmed the district court’s injunction prohibiting the closure of deportation proceedings on the basis of the government’s indiscriminate order, but leaving open the possibility of closing cases on 

a case-by-case basis upon a proper showing of compelling and particularized interests.31

Less than three months after the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Detroit Free Press, 

the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia published the opinion of Chief Judge Becker who wrote for the majority of the three-judge panel that 

heard a similar challenge on identical facts. Judge Becker’s opinion and order in 

North Jersey Media Group v. Ashcroft,32 which was published on October 8, 2002, 

reversed a district court injunction similar to that affirmed by the Sixth Circuit in 

Detroit Free Press. A conflict between the circuits was thus created that may be 

resolved only by the U.S. Supreme Court, or by one of the circuits en banc reversing 

its own panel upon appeal by a losing party. 

23

33 Id. at 201. 34 Id. 35 Id. at 216. 36See Fong Yue Ting v. U.S., 149 U.S. 698 (1893). 37 Immig. and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA) § 240(c)(1), 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(1)(2003). 38 INS v. Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. 1032, 1046 (1984). 39 INA § 240(b)(4), 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(4). 40 Am.-Arab Anti-Discrimination Comm., 525 U.S. at 484. 41See Convention (III) Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War art. 21 (Geneva

Convention), Aug. 12, 1949, available at http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/

7c4d08d9b287a42141256739003e636b/6fef854a3517b75ac125641e004a9e68? OpenDocument. 

Judge Becker invited the U.S. Supreme Court to re-consider the applicability of 

Richmond Newspapers by stating, ‘‘the notion that Richmond Newspapers applies 

is open to debate as a theoretical matter.’’ 33 The Court concluded, however, that ‘‘we 

must yield to the prior precedent of this court, and hence will apply it to the 

facts.’’ 34 Applying the same two-part test of Richmond Newspapers, as Judge Keith 

applied in Detroit Free Press, Judge Becker reached diametrically opposite conclusions. 

On the ‘‘experience’’ prong of the Richmond Newspapers test, Judge Becker found 

that Congress has never guaranteed public access to deportation hearings, that such 

hearings have often been conducted in locations inaccessible to the public, and were 

sometimes mandatorily closed to the public by statute. The opinion concluded that 

there is no ‘‘unbroken, uncontradicted history’’ of openness that Richmond Newspapers and its progeny require to establish a First Amendment right of access. The 

Court also upheld the government’s claim that a ‘‘basic tenet of administrative law 

is that agencies should be free to fashion their own rules of procedure.’’ 35

On the second prong of the Richmond Newspapers test, ‘‘logic’’ or public interest, 

Judge Becker also disagreed with the Sixth Circuit by concluding the test requires 

consideration not only of the positive policy role openness plays in a particular proceeding, but also the extent to which openness impairs the public good. On balance, 

Judge Becker doubted that openness promotes the public good in this particular context. Because open deportation hearings do not pass the two-part Richmond Newspapers test, Judge Becker concluded that the press and the public possess no First 

Amendment right of access. 

Because of the conflict between the circuit courts of appeal, a decision will be required from the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. courts have long held that immigration 

law violations are civil, not criminal, in nature, and that removal from the United 

States to one’s home country is not criminal punishment.36 Thus, aliens in removal 

proceedings do not have the rights that a criminal defendant would have. They do 

not, for example, have the right to jury trial.37 They do not have the right to invoke 

the exclusionary rule against improperly seized evidence.38 They do not have the 

right to legal representation paid for by the taxpayers.39

And because immigration hearings are clearly administrative, occurring entirely 

within the executive branch, and not judicial, the Supreme Court will have to consider Judge Becker’s invitation to rule the two-prong test for judicial proceedings of 

Richmond Newspapers inapplicable. Until 1983, removal hearings were conducted 

within the INS itself. In 1983, the Reagan administration decided to designate Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Hearing Officers as Immigration Judges 

and place those persons in a branch of the DOJ separate from the INS. Thus, the 

agency charging the alien with removability would no longer also have to rule on 

the charge. For the Supreme Court or any court now to rule that this 1983 Act 

transformed an administrative proceeding into a judicial proceeding with government discretion substantially restricted would be another instance of ‘‘no generous 

act goes unpunished.’’ 40

The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s holding in Detroit Free Press, to the 

extent that it relied upon the district court’s opinion in North Jersey Media, which 

was itself overturned by the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, presents a theory without a firm foundation. 

V. ENEMY COMBATANTS

Another controversial initiative of the U.S. government has been the detention of 

U.S. citizens Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla as enemy combatants, without bringing 

criminal charges or granting them access to lawyers or courts. The attention of lawyers and civil rights advocates to this practice is perhaps understandable, yet it is 

well established under the laws of war that prisoners of war can be interned for 

the duration of the war without rights to lawyers or courts.41 Thousands of German 

24

42 In re Territo, 156 F.2d 142 (9th Cir. 1946). 43Geneva Convention, supra note 41, art. 4. 44 Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 316 F.3d 450, 451 (4th Cir. 2003). 45 Id. at 477. 46 INA §§ 201–203, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1151–53. 47See INA § 207, 8 U.S.C. § 1157. 

and Italian prisoner’s of war (POW) were brought to the United States during World 

War II without such rights. But what if one of them happened to be a U.S. citizen? 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in 1946 that U.S. citizenship 

made no difference in the status of a POW detained as such by the U.S. government.42 It is true that the government asserts that Hamdi and Padilla, like other 

detained enemy combatants, cannot be considered POWs because they did not operate in recognizable uniforms, as part of disciplined military units, or on behalf of 

legitimate governments. Such a distinction exists in the international law of war 

and is not the creation of the Bush administration.43 Thus, these enemy combatants 

have even fewer rights than POWs, and the Ninth Circuit’s determination that U.S. 

citizenship makes no difference ought to apply equally to them. 

The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently upheld the continued detention of Yaser Hamdi as an enemy combatant without any special consideration for 

his U.S. citizenship by birth, and rejected a petition for a writ of habeas corpus and 

an order for the government to present evidence justifying any detention.44 In a 

thoughtful, balanced opinion that deserves to be affirmed by the U.S. Supreme 

Court, the Fourth Circuit, having dismissed the government’s suggestion that there 

is no role for the judiciary in a challenge to the exercise of war powers, concluded 

that it would hear such challenges for the purpose of determining whether the government was in fact exercising constitutionally authorized war powers. Having concluded that it was, the court found itself ill-equipped to assess facts on the battlefield and declined to compel the executive branch to defend the particulars of its 

exercise of war powers delegated exclusively to the executive branch by the U.S. 

Constitution.45

While the court of appeals properly limited its holding and analysis to the facts 

of the Hamdi case, its opinion should be a guiding light for other courts considering 

challenges to the exercise of war powers to detain enemy combatants. 

VI. REFORM LEGAL IMMIGRATION—CHANGE NUMBERS AND CATEGORIES

The United States admits more legal immigrants each year than the rest of the 

nations of the world combined. The exact number, which usually works out to 

around 800,000 to 900,000 annually, is determined by a very complicated formula 

with multiple ceilings and caps embedded in the Immigration and Nationality Act 

(INA) as enacted by Congress and signed by the President.46 The overall number 

depends to a considerable extent on the number of immediate relatives of U.S. citizens applying to immigrate. This group is admitted without numerical limitation, 

to the possible detriment of other categories. The complexity of this formula is not 

in itself particularly problematic. Those who need to understand it manage to do 

so. The problem is in the numbers the formula produces. 

An ongoing debate among policy makers, advocates, scholars, and students of immigration is whether the number of legal immigrants the United States admits each 

year is too large or too small. There is no answer and no end to that debate that 

is conducted at various levels: empirical, philosophical, and moral. I wish to add to 

the discussion only the suggestion that the formula is too rigid, too inflexible, for 

a nation experiencing the changes that have occurred since 9/11. 

The current formula applies regardless of economic conditions in the United 

States, regardless of the level of unemployment or of economic growth. It also applies regardless of the government’s ability to actually process any particular number of immigrants, and regardless of whether the government’s capabilities are 

being temporarily or permanently directed elsewhere. The current formula applies 

regardless of whether the United States is at peace with the world or whether it 

is at war and searching for terrorists within its boarders to prevent a recurrence 

of 9/11. 

As an alternative to the current rigid formula set by statute, I propose that Congress authorize the President, before the start of each fiscal year, to decide, in consultation with Congress, the appropriate number of immigrants to admit that fiscal 

year. The President could take into consideration economic data, the availability of 

government personnel and resources, and the national security needs of the country. 

This process would be very similar to that already in place for determining refugee 

admissions to the United States from abroad each year.47

25

48 INA § 201(b)(2)(A), 8 U.S.C. § 1151(b)(2)(A). 49 Id. 50 INA § 101(b)(1), 8 U.S.C. § 1101(b)(1). 51 INA § 203(a)(4), 8 U.S.C. § 1153(a)(4). The U.S. Department of State issues monthly visa 

bulletins announcing the dates of visa applications being currently processed. 52Stephen H. Legomsky, Immigration Law and Policy 225 (Foundation Press 1992). 

This flexibility in setting the overall level of immigration may prove useful in facilitating and supporting the war on terrorism and enhancing homeland security. 

And, as part of a reform of U.S. immigration laws, the United States should also 

consider whether the current categories of immigrants whom it ‘‘picks and chooses’’ under its current system are in fact the ones that the people of the United States 

want. 

The large majority of legal immigrants to the United States enter as immediate 

relatives of U.S. citizens or in other family-sponsored categories. The remainder are 

admitted in employment-based categories, on so-called diversity visas, a.k.a., the 

green card lottery, and as refugees from persecution abroad. Because immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are the only category admitted without numerical limitation, 

it is by far the fastest growing group of immigrants. Because the other family-sponsored categories are numerically limited, there is a waiting list for admission in 

most categories that may be as short as several months or as long as twenty years. 

Does it make sense for the United States to admit the largest portion of its immigrants in family-sponsored categories that do not consider job skills or prospects, 

education, or the ability to contribute to the country? Are those considered immediate relatives deserving of immediate admission regardless of their numbers? 

Immediate relatives are defined as ‘‘the children, spouses, and parents of a citizen 

of the United States.’’ 48 In the case of parents, the sponsoring citizen must be at 

least twenty-one years old.49 Children are unmarried persons under twenty-one 

years old.50

It makes sense that U.S. citizens want and need to be immediately reunited with 

their spouses and minor children, but does an adult citizen have a similar need to 

be reunited with his or her parents in the United States? Most of those citizens who 

sponsor parents were themselves immigrants who made a conscious decision to immigrate and leave their parents behind. The American family is typically a nuclear 

family. Adult Americans live with their spouses and minor children. Most do not 

live with their parents. And because of their age, the parents of citizens are less 

likely to contribute economically to the country through work, and more likely to 

require social services at an earlier date. The growing share of the statutory number 

of legal immigrants taken up by immediate relatives can and should be reduced by 

redefining immediate relatives to include only spouses and children of U.S. citizens. 

One way to reduce the number of immigration visas allocated to other familysponsored categories is to eliminate the ‘‘fourth preference’’ for brothers and sisters 

of adult U.S. citizens. Although the statutory formula allocates around 65,000 visas 

each year to this category, the waiting lists in this category are extraordinarily long, 

varying from eleven years for most nationalities to more than twenty years for those 

from the Philippines.51

A third reduction in the existing visa categories can be made by eliminating the 

so-called diversity visas, a.k.a., the green card lottery. Current law allocates 55,000 

immigrant visas each year to those selected from applicants with at least a high 

school education. This category was created in stages between 1986 and 1990 to facilitate more immigration from Europe, thus diversifying the immigration flow that 

was becoming increasingly dark-skinned. One immigration scholar has characterized 

these visas as ‘‘anti-diversity visas.’’ 52 Persons born in certain ‘‘high admission 

states,’’ such as Mexico, China, India, Jamaica, South Korea, and Vietnam, are expressly ineligible to receive these visas. Other high admission states are allocated 

reduced numbers of visas. 

Besides being explicitly discriminatory, diversity visas do not seem to be a logical 

way to allocate precious immigration visas, i.e., without regard to skills, advanced 

education, or employability. 

The employment-based categories of immigrant visas generally require a complex 

labor certification process or other similarly complex requirements. As a result, most 

of these categories have no waiting list and the allocated visas often go unclaimed. 

Those who are able to jump through all the statutory hoops to prove the requisite 

skills and employability, without displacing U.S. citizens or residents, can enter 

without waiting. 

The United States would be better served by taking the visas currently going to 

parents and siblings of adult U.S. citizens, and the diversity visas, and adding them 

to the employment-based visas. These visas should be allocated on a flexible but obVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:04 Jun 30, 2004 Jkt 089266 PO 00000 Frm 00029 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 G:\WORK\IMMIG\042904\93387.000 HJUD1 PsN: 93387
26

53 INA § 316(a), 8 U.S.C. § 1427(a); INA § 319(a), 8 U.S.C. § 1430(a) (providing the three-year 

rule for spouses). 54 INA § 349, 8 U.S.C. § 1481. 55 E.g., Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967) (holding that simply voting in a foreign election 

does not constitute a voluntary relinquishment of U.S. citizenship); Vance v. Terrazas, 444 U.S. 

252 (1980) (holding that when considering whether or not an individual voluntarily relinquishes 

his or her citizenship, the evidentiary standard to be employed is by a preponderance of the 

evidence). 56 INA § 349, 8 U.S.C. § 1481. 57See 22 C.F.R. 50.40 (2003); see also 67 Interpreter Releases 1092 (1990). 58 H. Ansgar Kelly, Dual Nationality, the Myth of Election, and a Kinder, Gentler State Department, 23 U. Miami Inter-Am. L. Rev. 421, 446 (1991/1992). 

jective points system without requiring a burdensome labor certification, similar to 

the immigration systems in Canada and Australia. 

Points can be awarded for desirable characteristics, such as youth, health, education, skills, including language skills, work experience, financial resources, or family sponsors. The cut-off point for admission each year can be set based on the number of immigrants the United States chooses to admit. This would simplify the current immigration system, provide the United States with immigrants better able to 

contribute to its economy, and eliminate the discriminatory diversity visas, all without necessarily changing the number of immigrants who would otherwise be admitted. 

VII. LIMIT THE DURATION OF LEGAL PERMANENT RESIDENT STATUS

Once granted, an immigrant visa, commonly called a green card, entitles the holder to legal permanent residence as long as certain disqualifying criminal or terrorist 

acts are not committed. There is no requirement that the legal permanent resident 

ever become a U.S. citizen or demonstrate any loyalty or gratitude to the United 

States. The legal permanent resident can get all the benefits of living and working 

in the United States while maintaining citizenship in and loyalty to another country. Millions of people choose to do this. How is this in the best interest of the 

United States? 

The United States generally allows legal permanent residents to apply for citizenship only after five years—three years for spouses of U.S. citizens.53 This allows the 

alien time to decide if he or she wishes to become a citizen. It also allows the United 

States an opportunity to evaluate the alien’s character and eligibility for citizenship. 

The United States should consider requiring legal permanent residents to apply 

for U.S. citizenship after five years. If they choose not to do so, they would lose their 

green cards and right to permanent residence in the United States. This would reduce the size of the non-citizen portion of the U.S. population, which though permanently living among U.S. citizens owes no loyalty to the United States. This change 

would encourage and facilitate the assimilation of immigrants. 

VIII. LIMIT DUAL CITIZENSHIP

While dual citizenship may have benefits to the individuals concerned, it is not 

so clear that toleration of dual citizenship has benefits for the United States. Current U.S. law provides for expatriation by voluntary performance of one of seven 

specified acts done ‘‘with the intention of relinquishing U.S. nationality.’’ 54 This reflects U.S. Supreme Court opinions ruling that U.S. citizenship may be lost only 

through a voluntary expatriating act done with the intention to expatriate.55

The seven expatriating acts specified in Section 349 of the INA are, generally, as 

follows: 1) obtaining naturalization in a foreign state; 2) taking an oath of allegiance 

to a foreign state; 3) entering the armed forces of a foreign state engaged in hostilities against the United States or as an officer; 4) employment by a foreign state 

while a national of such state; 5) formal renunciation before a U.S. Consular officer; 

6) written renunciation in the United States during a state of war; or 7) any act 

of treason.56

Current U.S. policy, however, is very tolerant of dual citizenship and expressions 

of loyalty towards another country. The U.S. State Department has announced that 

it will presume that U.S. citizens intend to retain their U.S. citizenship when they 

obtain naturalization in a foreign state, take a ‘‘routine’’ oath of allegiance to a foreign state, or accept non-policy level employment with a foreign government.57 Citizenship renunciation contained in naturalization oaths of other countries are now 

considered pro forma declarations, without any intention to give up U.S. citizenship.58

The State Department’s presumption of intent to retain citizenship despite potentially expatriating acts seems unnecessarily tolerant. National security is enhanced 

27

59 INA § 212(a)(3)(A), 8 U.S.C. §1182 (a)(3)(A)(amended 2002). 60 INA § 217. This program was initially described as a ‘‘pilot project’’ but was made permanent by Congress in October of 2000. 61The number of countries was twenty-nine until Argentina was removed from the list in 

2002. See Implications of Transnational Terrorism for the Visa Waver Program: Hearing Before 

the Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims of the Comm. on the Judiciary, 102nd Cong. 8–

14 (2002) (statement of Peter M. Becraft, INS Deputy Commissioner). 62 Id. 63For a frightening analysis of this problem see Jeff Goodell, How to Fake a Passport, N.Y. 

Times magazine, Feb. 10, 2002, § 6, at 44. 

by a nation enjoying the exclusive loyalty of its own citizens. Sometimes dual citizenship is unavoidable because of the particular laws of another country and without any action on the part of the individual, but it should not be encouraged. The 

United States should not give the benefit of the doubt to actions that Congress has 

named by law to be expatriating. 

The presumption should be reversed, either by regulation or by statute. It should 

be presumed that any of the expatriating acts listed in INA Section 351, including 

naturalization in a foreign state, are committed with the intention to expatriate, 

with the burden on the individual to prove otherwise. 

IX. REQUIRE VISAS OF ALL FOREIGN VISITORS, ENDING VISA WAIVERS

Prior to 1986, the United States required that nearly all aliens, except Canadians 

and certain Mexicans, wishing to enter the United States to first obtain visas from 

a U.S. Consulate. Aliens apply for visitor visas to the United States by submitting 

applications with their passports to a U.S. Consulate. This gives the Consulate an 

opportunity to inspect the passport to insure that it is not counterfeit and has not 

been stolen. The Consulate also has an opportunity to investigate the applicant and 

may require a personal interview. These visitor visa applications may be denied for 

a variety of reasons, including reasonable grounds to believe the alien seeks to enter 

the United States to engage in any unlawful activity.59 Production of U.S. visas was 

routinely required of aliens to obtain boarding passes for aircraft bound for the 

United States. 

But in 1986, Congress enacted the visa waiver program, which authorized the 

entry of visitors from certain countries, which were mainly European, with a low 

nonimmigrant visa refusal rate.60 Persons with passports from any of these now 

twenty-eight countries may board airplanes bound for the United States merely by 

purchasing tickets and showing their passports.61 This reform was intended to facilitate the entry of foreign tourists and businesspersons into the United States, and 

to relieve U.S. Consulates of the considerable paperwork and cost surrounding the 

issuance of visitor visas to citizens of these countries. 

It is now known that a visa waiver allowed the entry, without a visa, of Zacarias 

Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent who is believed to have been the 

‘‘twentieth hijacker’’ and who has been charged with conspiracy to commit the murders of 9/11. It is also known that Richard Reid, the so-called ‘‘shoe bomber,’’ as a 

British citizen and passport holder was able, because of the visa waiver program, 

to board an airplane headed for the United States without having to apply for or 

acquire a U.S. visa. It has also been reported that Ramzi Yousef and at least one 

other conspirator used false visa waiver passports to travel to the United States in 

furtherance of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.62 Does the United States 

need more proof than that of the continuing threat to U.S. national security resulting from the visa waiver program? 

It is also now known that all of the 9/11 hijackers spent time in Western Europe 

and that Western Europe, as much as the Middle East, is a source of Al-Qaida terrorism directed at the United States. In addition, thousands of blank Belgian and 

Italian passports have disappeared or been stolen from government offices, which 

might be doctored to facilitate entry to the United States via the visa waiver program.63

Regardless, on February 28, 2002, the President and CEO of the Travel Industry 

Association of America testified before the Immigration Subcommittee of the House 

Judiciary Committee, stating: 

In a post-9/11 world, the Visa Waiver Program is just as important as ever, and 

the rationale that underlies its creation and existence is as sound as ever. . . . The 

Visa Waiver Program should be embraced by Congress and the Administration as 

28

64 Implications of Transnational Terrorism for the Visa Waver Program: Hearing Before the 

Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims of the Comm. on the Judiciary, 102nd Cong. 23 

(2002) (statement of William S. Norman, President and CEO, Travel Industry Association of 

America). 65 Id. at 14. 66 Id. at 12. 67See Goodell, supra note 63 (emphasis added). 68 8 C.F.R. § 245 (2003). 69 INA § 245, 8 U.S.C. § 1255 (2000). 

part of our overall homeland security program, and should be viewed as a means 

of strengthening both our national security and economic security.64

The Deputy Commissioner of the INS agreed, stating, ‘‘eliminating the program 

will not eliminate the ability of terrorists to enter the United States.’’ 65

Isn’t that the wrong question? Of course eliminating visa waivers cannot eliminate the ability of terrorists to enter the United States, but will ending visa waivers 

to any significant extent reduce the ability of terrorists to enter the United States? 

Isn’t that the right question to ask? And if the answer is yes, shouldn’t Congress 

and the Administration end the visa waiver program immediately and restore the 

visa requirement for foreign visitors notwithstanding the lobbying of the travel industry? 

The repeal of visa waivers will impose a significant burden on U.S. Consulates 

to screen visa applicants. In the 2001 fiscal year, the number of foreign arrivals 

under the visa waiver program was seventeen million, but the burden of screening 

visa applicants assumed by U.S. Consulates will directly enhance U.S. national security.66 And the additional cost can be offset by the common international practice 

of assessing a fee for visa processing. There is also the possibility of retaliation by 

former visa waiver countries, which may choose to begin requiring visas of U.S. visitors. But each country’s visa policy is determined by that country’s perceived national interest, and it should be recalled that before 1986 most Western European 

countries did not require visas of U.S. visitors even though the United States required visas of European visitors. 

As a Belgian police official stated to an American journalist regarding the problem 

of missing or stolen Belgian passports, ‘‘Strictly speaking, . . . Belgium does not 

have a problem with terrorism. You have a problem with terrorism.’’ 67

X. END ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS

U.S. visas for immigration and permanent residence are only available from U.S. 

consular officials serving outside of the United States. So what should an alien do 

who is eligible for an immigration visa but who is already in the United States on 

a temporary non-resident visa as a tourist, perhaps, or a student? For many years 

the answer was that he or she must return to his or her home country and obtain 

an immigrant visa from the U.S. Consulate there. 

Because of the expense and burden of such a return to one’s home country, in 

1935 the INS began the practice of allowing aliens to complete paperwork in the 

United States and then proceed to a U.S. Consulate in Canada to obtain a pre-arranged immigrant visa.68 And because the trip to Canada seemed entirely pro 

forma, in 1952 Congress authorized the ‘‘adjustment of status’’ by eligible immigrants to be completed entirely within the United States.69

Statutory adjustment of status is no doubt beneficial to those immigrants who 

make use of it. But is it also beneficial to the United States? Allowing the adjustment of status in the United States precludes a reconsideration of the alien’s admissibility by a U.S. consular officer in the alien’s country of origin. This officer may 

be better able to assess admissibility than an immigration officer in the United 

States because consular officers presumably have a better knowledge of country conditions and access to better intelligence from local sources in-country. 

Additionally, returning to one’s home country to apply for an immigration visa is 

no longer the practical or financial burden it was in 1935 or 1952. In the context 

of a war on terrorism, the United States should obtain the best possible security 

assessment before granting an immigration visa authorizing permanent residence 

and eventual citizenship. That assessment can only be made by a consular officer 

in-country. A balancing of the benefits to U.S. national security and the burdens to 

the alien of returning home to obtain the immigrant visa strongly favors the repeal 

of the adjustment of status statute. 

XI. Move EOIR and Consular Affairs to the Department of Homeland Security 

I was not originally a supporter of reorganizing the INS. I felt that the problems 

at the INS were not organizational but due primarily to over-tasking, under-fundVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:04 Jun 30, 2004 Jkt 089266 PO 00000 Frm 00032 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 G:\WORK\IMMIG\042904\93387.000 HJUD1 PsN: 93387
29

70See Jan Ting, Too Much Work for Too Few, Phila. Inquirer, Apr. 29, 2002, at A11. 71See Tim Weiner, Along Borders, Tension and Uncertainty Prevail, N.Y. Times, Mar. 1, 2003, 

at A10. 72See Nikolai Wenzel, America’s Other Border Patrol: The State Department’s Consular Corps 

and Its Role in U.S. Immigration, Center for Immigration Studies, Aug. 2000, available at http:/

/www.cis.org/articles/2000/back800.html. 73 INA §§ 274B-C, 8 U.S.C. § 1324 (2000). 

ing, and under-staffing.70 But I concluded that if a reorganization was politically unavoidable, consolidation of the INS with other border security agencies, such as Customs and the Coast Guard, in a cabinet-level department dedicated to border security, as has happened, was the least bad alternative and had some benefits. One 

of those benefits ought to be better coordination among all the Federal agencies and 

personnel whose mission includes border and homeland security. 

The emergence of the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 1, 

2003, consolidated 177,000 government employees from twenty-two different agencies, and it seems clear that the transition to a new department will not be easy.71

Still, at least two pieces of the border and homeland security infrastructure are 

missing, the Bureau of Consular Affairs (BCA), which remains at the Department 

of State, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which remains 

at the DOJ. 

The State Department’s BCA is the agency that actually issues non-immigrant 

and immigrant visas to aliens wishing to visit or immigrate to the United States. 

It is the agency that issued visas to the nineteen hijackers who attacked the United 

States on 9/11. In a consolidation of all the agencies concerned with border security, 

including the Coast Guard, Customs, the INS and its Border Patrol, and even the 

Agriculture Department’s border inspectors, it is puzzling to see the BCA escape 

consolidation into the new DHS. 

The issuance of visas has never been the prestige work of the Department of 

State. Consular work has never been seen as the pathway to an Ambassadorship, 

and has been regarded in the Department of State as a rite of passage for junior 

Foreign Service Officers and a safe place for senior officers to work, who, for whatever reason, are not assigned more meaningful diplomatic assignments. The BCA 

has responded to both external and internal pressures to issue visas quickly to facilitate entry of alien visitors into the United States. The BCA has declared the foreign visa applicant as the customer, rather than the American people.72

Both the original Bush Administration proposal and the final legislative enactment for the new department lack clarity on exactly which department will control 

visa policy, though the BCA itself remains part of the State Department. The State 

Department has long maintained that visa policy needs to be subordinated to the 

larger diplomatic policies of the department. If transferred to the DHS, it may reasonably be assumed that visa policy will be subordinated to the national security 

interests of the United States. That seems preferable. 

The other missing piece from the new DHS is the EOIR, which remains at the 

DOJ. Prior to 1983, when the INS charged an alien with deportability, a hearing 

would be conducted before an INS Special Inquiry Officer who was authorized by 

law to order the alien’s removal from the United States, with administrative appeal 

only to the Attorney General and judicial appeal only to the U.S. circuit courts of 

appeal. Because of the impracticality of the Attorney General’s personally considering immigration appeals, a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) was created by 

regulation to rule on appeals on behalf of the Attorney General.73

Because of real and perceived problems in the subordination of the Special Inquiry Officers to the INS, in 1983 the DOJ promulgated regulations creating the 

EOIR to which the Special Inquiry Officers, now designated Immigration Judges, 

were transferred along with the BIA. The EOIR remained a part of the DOJ under 

the Attorney General. The Attorney General’s authority over both the INS and the 

EOIR insured that there would never be two conflicting voices from the Federal government on U.S. immigration policy. Any serious policy dispute between the INS 

and the EOIR could be quickly settled by the Attorney General or his designate. 

But with the INS functions transferred to the DHS and the EOIR remaining at 

the DOJ, the potential for conflicting voices on immigration policy is increased. Presumably, a policy dispute between the immigration bureaus of the DHS and the 

EOIR could now be resolved only at the cabinet level. This is not a satisfactory 

method of insuring uniform U.S. immigration policy, however well the current Secretary of the DHS and the current Attorney General get along. The potential difficulty can and should be avoided by moving EOIR to the same department where 

the immigration powers of the INS now reside. 

30

XII. CONCLUSION

History reassures us that the emergency measures enacted by our government 

during previous wars, even Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil 

War, have had no lasting effects on American society once the war was won and 

peace restored. Indeed, our sensitivity over civil liberties is greater now than it has 

ever been in our history. The liberty U.S. citizens should be most concerned about 

right now is the right of all Americans, and non-Americans, too, to live in peace, 

free of the threat of terrorism. Defense of that civil liberty is what this war is all 

about. But if this war against terrorism is lost, no person’s civil liberties will survive. 

Accordingly, U.S. national indecisiveness over immigration policy must end. Immigration law must finally be recognized for what it has always been, an instrument 

of national security policy.

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Thank you, Professor. 

Dr. Camarota? 

STATEMENT OF STEVEN A. CAMAROTA, PH.D., DIRECTOR OF 

RESEARCH, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES 

Mr. CAMAROTA. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify on the visa lottery. 

As you pointed out, my name is Steven Camarota, and I am director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies. 

I would like to discuss what I see as five major problems. Jan 

had three, but I actually have five major problems with the lottery. 

The first problem is that it has to be administered in the first 

place. Each entry has to be processed, and this creates a very significant administrative burden. Moreover, then the winners of the 

lottery have to be vetted by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Processing millions of entries and then 

tens of thousands of thousands of additional green cards this year 

that would not otherwise have to be processed creates a significant 

burden for the Department of State and DHS, two organizations 

that are already overwhelmed by the number of applicants in other 

categories. 

Trying to weed out fraudulent lottery applications and even processing legitimate ones is a diversion for agencies that must identify 

terrorists among the millions seeking to come to the United States 

in other categories. It is no surprise that an internal audit conducted by the State Department in the 1990’s characterized the lottery as an unfunded mandate that saps personnel resources. 

A second problem is that, in addition to creating administrative 

burdens, the lottery itself encourages illegal immigration. Now, 

consider the case of Hesham Hedayet, who, as we know, murdered 

two people at LAX in 2002. Hedayet had overstayed his tourist visa 

in 1992 and lived in the United States as an illegal alien and even 

after his asylum application was denied in 1996. During his years 

as an illegal alien, it turns out, his wife continued to play the lottery with the hope of eventually being able to stay permanently, 

which she eventually did win. This allowed her and her husband 

to get a green card. 

The fact is that the very existence of the lottery gave the 

Hedayets a realistic hope of staying if they just played long enough 

because they really had no other choice. They had no family here. 

They had no specialized skills, and of course they did not qualify 

for asylum. If it had not been for the lottery, Hedayet and his family may well have given up, gone home. The lottery’s very existence 

31

tells illegal aliens that they should not go home because some day 

they just might win too. 

A third problem with the lottery is that corruption and fraud are 

very widespread in the countries that send the most lottery applicants. Two of the most corrupt Nations on earth, according to 

Transparency International Index, are Bangladesh and Nigeria, 

two countries perennially among the top 10 lottery winners. State 

Department records from 1996—unfortunately, I was not able to 

get more recent numbers—show that lottery winners are much 

more likely than other applicants to be refused due to fraud. 

Among the top 10 Nations in the lottery of that year, the following 

refusal rates for fraud: 24 percent for Poland, 44 percent for Bangladesh, 46 percent for Egypt, 62 percent for Ghana and a whopping 80 percent for Nigeria. 

The general prevalence of fraud in these countries is bad enough, 

but the lottery itself encourages fraud. It invites applications from 

people with no relatives or ties to an American institution, such as 

an employer who could at least vouch for the veracity of the applicant. 

The problem of fraud also of course relates to terrorism. Ordinary fraud is bad enough, but after 9/11 immigration fraud of any 

kind is a national security nightmare. We must remember that the 

lottery does not draw people randomly from around the globe. 

About one-third of winners come from countries that were part of 

the special registration system for temporary visitors set up by the 

DHS after the September 11th attacks. All observers agree that 

these countries are of special concern in the war against terrorism. 

And as we have already stated, several lottery winners have been 

involved in terrorism. 

The lottery is so ideal for terrorists because it encourages immigration and applications from people with no existing tie to the 

United States, who come from parts of the world where fraud is 

common, where documents are difficult to verify and, most importantly, al-Qaeda is very active. 

Now, of course, there’s other ways to get in, but we must remember that the green card is really the Holy Grail for the terrorists 

because it allows them to work at any job they want, to enter and 

leave the United States, to get a hazardous materials license and 

so on. Thus, a green card, if somebody were going to design the 

ideal visa category for terrorists, the lottery would be it. 

But if all of this wasn’t bad enough, the fact is the lottery doesn’t 

even serve any purpose. Maybe these risks would be worth it if we 

could find some reason for it. There’s no humanitarian reason for 

it. Unlike employment-based immigration, it does not select people 

based on their skills nor does it unite families. And even despite 

its official name, the Diversity Lottery, it doesn’t even have a significant effect on the actual diversity of legal immigration. Since its 

inception, there hasn’t been a fundamental change in the top countries sending immigrants to the United States. They are the same 

countries basically year after year, and they account for roughly 

the same share. 

Put simply, the lottery does not increase diversity, serve any economic need, it doesn’t promote humanitarian goals or help unite 

families. Instead, it creates a huge administrative burden for the 

32

1The index can be found at www.transparency.org/cpi/2003/cpi2003.en.html. 

immigration system, encourages illegal immigration, invites fraud 

and makes it easier for terrorists to enter. Surely, the Nation can 

do without such a program. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Camarota follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF STEVEN A. CAMAROTA

The visa lottery is probably the strangest part of our immigration system. We actually run a system where people send in a postcard, which is now done electrically, 

and then names are drawn out of a hat, with 50,000 winners each year given 

premanent residence in the United States. The winners need not have even one 

family member in the United States, or any particular job skill that is supposed to 

be in need, nor is any compelling humanitarian reason required. All they need is 

the desire to come and some luck. There are many problems with the such a system, 

but five stand out: 1) it is administratively burdensome; 2) it encourages illegal immigration; 3) it invites fraud; 4) it creates a great opportunity for terrorists; 5) it 

serves no purpose. 

ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN

One of the biggest problems with the lottery is that it has to be administered. 

Each entry has to be processed to ensure that the application meets the lottery’s 

minimal standards. These names have to be recorded so that the winners can be 

randomly selected. Finally, the winners have to be vetted by the State Department 

and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Processing millions of entries, and 

then tens of thousands of additional green cards each year that would otherwise not 

have to be processed, creates a significant burden for the State Department and 

DHS—two organizations that are already overwhelmed by the number of applicants 

in other immigration categories. Trying to weed out fraudulent lottery applications, 

and even processing legitimate ones, is a diversion for agencies that must identify 

terrorists among the millions seeking to come to America. It is no surprise that an 

internal audit conducted by the State Department in the 1990s characterized the 

visa lottery as a costly, unfunded mandate that saps personnel resources. 

ENCOURAGES ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

In addition to creating administrative burdens, the lottery encourages illegal immigration. Consider the case of Hesham Mohamed Hedayet, who murdered Victoria 

Hen and Yaakov Aminov at Los Angeles International Airport on July 4 of 2002. 

Mr. Hedayet overstayed a tourist visa in 1992 and before his tourist visa expired, 

he applied for asylum and then continued to live in the United States for a number 

of years as an illegal alien after his visa expired. Even after his asylum application 

was turned down in 1996, Mr. Hedayet stay and live here as an illegal alien. 

His wife continued to play the visa lottery with the hope that they would eventually be able to win a visa, which she eventually won, allowing her, her husband, 

and children to get a green card. The existence of the lottery gave the Hedayets a 

realistic hope of eventually getting a green card, if they just played it long enough. 

They really had no other choice, because they had no family member who could 

sponsor them or any specialized skills allowing them to qualify for employmentbased immigration and, of course, Hedayet did not qualify for asylum. If it had not 

been for the lottery, Hedayet and his family might have given up and gone home. 

The lottery gives hope to countless other illegal aliens that one day they too will 

win the lottery and be able to stay in this country. The lottery’s very existence tells 

hundreds of thousand of other people living here illegally, who have no realistic 

means of every getting a green card, that they should not go home because one day 

they too may win the visa lottery, if they play it long enough. 

RAMPANT FRAUD

One of the things that makes the lottery so difficult to administer is that corruption and fraud are so widespread in the countries that send in the most applications 

for the lottery. The two most corrupt nations in the world, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2003 1, Bangladesh and Nigeria, are also perennially among the top-10 lottery winners. State Department 

records from 1996 (we can’t get more recent ones) show that lottery winners are 

33

even more likely than other immigration applicants to be refused a visa due to 

fraud. Among the top-10 nations in this year’s lottery, diversity visa refusal rates 

from 1996 (the most recent year available) were as follows: Poland 24 percent, Ethiopia 38 percent, Bangladesh 44 percent, Egypt 46 percent, Ghana 62 percent. The 

country with the largest number of lottery winners, Nigeria, had a astonishing refusal rate of 80 percent. And these rates would be higher but for the State Department’s laxity with regard to fraud in the visa process. 

The general prevalence of fraud in these countries is bad enough, but the lottery 

itself encourages fraud. It invites applications from almost anyone, especially those 

with no relatives or ties to an American institution, such as an employer in the 

United States who can at least vouch for the applicant. Moreover, there is strong 

anecdotal evidence that many people send in more than one application using different names in an effort to increase their chances of winning. It is partly for this 

reason that so many ‘‘winning’’ entries are eventually thrown out. The whole process 

makes a mockery of attempts to apply even the most minimal of requirements. 

CREATES AN OPPORTUNITY FOR TERRORISTS

Ordinary fraud is bad enough, but after 9/11, immigration fraud of any kind poses 

a dire security threat. We must remember that the lottery does not draw people randomly from around the globe. Winners come disproportionately from countries that 

were part of the special registration system for temporary visitors set up by DHS 

after the September 11th attacks. All observers agree that these countries are of 

special concern in the war against Islamic extremism. And about a third of winners 

come from those countries. 

Several lottery winners have already been involved in terrorism in the United 

States. Michigan sleeper cell member Karim Koubriti, convicted this summer on terrorism-related charges, was a lottery winner from Morocco, as was Ahmed Hannan, 

who was acquitted of terrorism charges in the same trial but convicted of document 

fraud. The most notorious lottery winner is, of course, Hesham Mohamed Hedayet. 

The lottery is ideal for terrorists because it encourages immigration from those 

parts of the world were both fraud is common, document are difficult to verify and 

al Qaeda is very active. Moreover, it allows people into the country with no family 

or other significant connections to the United States. Again, this is tailor-made for 

someone wishing to attack our country. While there are other ways to enter the 

country, a green card is far more valuable to terrorists than temporary visa such 

those for tourists or students. A green card lets a person stay in the country indefinitely and this gives terrorists the time they may need to plan a sophisticated plot. 

Moreover, permanent residency allows the recipient to work at almost any job they 

like, get a licence to handle hazardous material, and to travel to and from the 

United States as often as they please. If one were to set out to design a visa that 

was ideal for terrorists, the visa lottery system would be it. 

SERVES NO PURPOSE

The visa lottery might be worth all the problems and risks it creates if it met 

some need. But it does not. There is no humanitarian reason to admit people based 

on luck. Unlike employment-based immigration, the lottery does not make any attempt to select people based on whether they have some special or much-needed job 

skill. Nor does it reunite families as is the intent with family-based immigration. 

Despite its official name, the Diversity Lottery does not even have a significant 

effect on the actual diversity of legal immigration. In FY 2002, the top-10 immigrant-sending countries were the source of more than half of that year’s total legal 

immigration. This is almost exactly the same percentage as 10 years earlier, before 

the lottery was put in place. In fact, the nation’s total immigrant population (legal 

and illegal) has actually become less diverse during the course of the lottery. A recent analysis of Census data by the Center for Immigration Studies found that from 

1990 to 2000, Mexicans went from 22 percent of all immigrants to 30 percent, while 

immigrants from all of Spanish-speaking Latin America combined went from 37 to 

46 percent of the total foreign-born population. Truly diversifying immigration 

would entail one of two things: huge reductions in immigration from Mexico, or huge 

increases in immigration from everywhere else. The lottery simply cannot do even 

what it purports to. 

CONCLUSION

If it can be said that anything good may have come from the atrocities of 9/11, 

it is that many Americans have come to realize that immigration is not simply a 

matter of economics or something to think about only in romantic and nostalgic 

terms. No longer can quaint stories of one’s immigrant grandmother be a substitute 

34

for intelligent discourse on one of the most important issues confronting the country. 

Failures in our immigration system result mostly from a lack of resources and illconceived immigration programs. The visa lottery is clearly one of those programs. 

The lottery does not increase diversity, serve any economic need, promote humanitarian goals, or help families reunite. It creates a huge burden for the immigration 

system, encourages illegal immigration, invites fraud, and makes it easier for terrorists to enter. Surely the nation can do without such a program.

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Thank you, Dr. Camarota. 

The chair now recognizes Mr. Nyaga for 5 minutes. 

STATEMENT OF CHARLES NYAGA, MARIETTA, GA 

Mr. NYAGA. Mr. Chairman and the distinguished Members of the 

Subcommittee, my name is Charles Nyaga. I am from Marietta, 

Georgia. I also would like to introduce and acknowledge my attorney, Charles Kuck, who is here with me today. He represents me 

on this issue and has helped me to understand what has happened 

to me and my family and is advising me on the next steps to take. 

I am honored to be here today to discuss my very trying experiences with the Diversity Visa Program. I come before you today in 

hopes that you will help resolve my case and ensure that others 

will not have to go through the same experiences that I and my 

family are going through. While I understand that there have been 

problems in the past with the Diversity Visa Program and that 

some of these problems continue today, I am here to point out that 

the program also provides great benefits to potential immigrants 

such as myself. 

My own experience with the Diversity Visa Lottery Program 

started with great excitement when my single application was selected. However, despite having been notified by the Government 

that I had been selected as a winner in the Diversity Visa Program 

and, moreover, having done everything the Government asked me 

to do, I now find myself and my family facing deportation because 

of the Government’s failures in carrying forward this program. 

I am a native of Kenya, and I came to the U.S. with my family 

as a student in 1996. I am currently pursuing a master’s degree 

in divinity, and am an elder at Southminster Presbyterian Church. 

I have served as an elder in the Church’s stated session, as an 

elder commissioner to the Church Presbytery meetings, as chair of 

Church Missions and Service, Buildings and Grounds Maintenance 

and Worship Committees. 

In 1997, I applied one time for the fiscal year 1998 Diversity Visa 

Program. After my selection as a winner by the Department of 

State, and in accordance with the Diversity Visa requirements, I 

submitted my fee to adjust my status to legal permanent resident 

and completed my application by February 1998. However, the Immigration Service failed to complete the processing as mandated. 

The Immigration Service’s receipt notice of my permanent resident application provided the following instructions, and I quote: 

‘‘While your application is pending before the interview, please do 

not make an inquiry as to the status of your case since it will result in further delay.’’ The Immigration Service told me in this receipt that it would take 3 years to process my permanent resident 

application and that I should not follow up with them until 3 years 

had passed. I, accordingly, never made inquiry and unfortunately 

never heard anything from the Agency. At the end of the fiscal 

35

year, my petition expired, although a sufficient number of diversity 

visas remained available. I suspect that massive casework overloads at the Immigration Service prevented my paperwork from 

being processed within deadlines. 

I know of a few others who are in the same situation I am in 

because of Government inaction. We all followed the rules, but 

nonetheless face deportation: a Swiss national who was in the U.S. 

as an investor prior to being selected as a winner under the Diversity Visa Lottery Program, who has had to sell his business because the Immigration Service did not process his green card in 

time; a South African airline pilot whose application for permanent 

residence was not timely adjudicated ended up losing his employment because of this failure; and a Russian whose wife is a lawful 

permanent resident will now have to wait back in Russia for the 

next several years while she awaits her naturalization to be approved. All of these individuals and others have been victimized by 

the inaction of the Immigration Service and erroneous and incomplete instructions of the Department of State who notifies the winners. 

I am fortunate that my family and I have not had to face this 

situation alone. Members of my church have stood by me in the 

very trying moments. I want to take this opportunity to publicly 

thank them from the bottom of my heart. I also would like to submit, for the record, these letters from my church and others which 

support my case. 

I am also very grateful to Senator Saxby Chambliss, the chair of 

the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and 

Citizenship, for introducing legislation No. S. 2089 that will address my situation. This targeted legislation will provide welcome 

relief to people like myself and my family and others who, during 

fiscal years 1998 through 2003, were unable to obtain permanent 

residence under the Diversity Visa Program because the fiscal year 

ended before their cases were approved. The bill authorizes such 

individuals to reopen their cases and continue processing as long 

as the Diversity Visas for the fiscal year in which they filed remain 

available. 

I am very excited to see the positive efforts of Senator Chambliss 

and the other Members of the Senate who support those persons 

such as myself who have been deprived of legal benefit of permanent residence by the inaction of the former Immigration Service. 

I hope the Senate will move quickly on this legislation. I also hope 

that Members of the House of Representatives will quickly introduce and pass this worthy legislation. 

Law-abiding people who follow the rules pay the required fees 

and rely on the Government’s procedures should not be punished 

because of Government inaction. 

Thank you again for allowing me to testify. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Nyaga follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHARLES NYAGA

Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, my name is 

Charles Nyaga. I am from Marietta, Georgia. I also would like to introduce and acknowledge my attorney, Charles Kuck, who is here with me today. He represents 

me on this issue, has helped me to understand what has happened to my family 

and me, and is advising me on the next steps. 

36

I am honored to be here today to discuss my very trying experiences with the Diversity Visa Program. I come before you in hopes that you will help resolve my case 

and ensure that others do not have to go through the same experiences that my 

family and I are going through. While I understand that there have been problems 

in the past with the Diversity Visa Program, and that some of those problems continue today, I am here to point out that the program also provides great benefits 

to potential immigrants such as myself. 

My own experience with the Diversity Visa Lottery program started with great 

excitement when my single application was selected. However, despite having been 

notified by the government that I had been selected as a ‘‘winner’’ in the Diversity 

Visa Program, and moreover having done everything the government asked of me 

to do, I now found my family and myself facing deportation because of the government’s failures in carrying forward this program. 

I am a native of Kenya and legally came to the U.S. with my family as a student 

in 1996. I currently am pursuing a master’s degree in divinity, and am an elder at 

Southminster Presbyterian Church. I have served as an Elder in the Church’s stated session, as an Elder Commissioner to Church Presbytery Meetings, and as Chair 

of Church Missions and Service, Buildings and Grounds Maintenance and Worship 

Committees 

In 1997, I applied once for the FY 1998 Diversity Visa program. After my selection as a ‘‘winner’’ by the Department of State, and in accordance with the Diversity 

Visa requirements, I submitted my fee to adjust my status to legal permanent resident, and completed my application by February 1998. However, the Immigration 

and Naturalization Service (INS) failed to complete the processing as mandated. 

The Immigration Service’s receipt notice of my permanent resident application 

provided the following instruction: ‘‘While your application is pending before the 

interview, please DO NOT make inquiry as to the status of your case, since it will 

result in further delay.’’ The Immigration Service told me in this receipt that it 

would take three years to process my permanent resident application, and that I 

should not follow up with them until three years had passed. What I did not understand, nor was it properly explained to me as a ‘‘winner’’ of the diversity visa program, was that 100,000 winners are typically chosen, yet only 50,000 people (and 

many times far less) are given permanent residence. During the eight months that 

INS had to review my application in fiscal year 1998, I accordingly never made inquiry, and unfortunately never heard anything from the agency. At the end of the 

fiscal year, my application expired, although a sufficient number of diversity visas 

remained available. I suspect that massive casework overloads at the Immigration 

Service prevented my paperwork from being processed within deadlines. 

Let me step back a moment. Individuals like me who win the DV visa lottery program are provided a number, and when our number becomes current, are eligible 

to apply for permanent residence. However, the law presently requires that applicants not only file their applications in a timely manner, but also be approved during the fiscal year in which they file. If approval is delayed for any reason, including 

administrative backlogs, the person loses the opportunity to benefit from the program. 

I know of a few others who are in the same situation I am in because of government inaction. We all followed the rules, but nonetheless face deportation: a Swiss 

national who was in the U.S. as an investor prior to being selected as a winner 

under the Diversity Visa Lottery program, who has had to sell his business because 

the Immigration Service did not process his green card in time; a South African airline pilot whose application for permanent residence was not timely adjudicated, 

who ended up losing his employment because of this failure of timely processing; 

and a Russian national whose wife is a Lawful Permanent Resident. He will now 

have to wait back in Russia for the next several years while she awaits her naturalization to be approved. All of these individuals, and countless hundreds and perhaps thousands more, have been victimized by the inaction of the Immigration Service, and erroneous and incomplete instructions of the Department of State who notify the ‘‘winners.’’

Thus, people who have done everything our government requires of us to do, 

through no fault of our own, ultimately are unable to become permanent residents 

under the DV Program. 

Now, because of government inaction, my family and I face deportation from the 

U.S. 

Since I did not believe what happened was fair, my wife and I took our case to 

the Northern District Court of Georgia, where the District Court Judge granted our 

request for adjustment of status and ordered the Immigration Service to process my 

application for permanent residence outside of the parameters of the timeframe dictated by the statute. However, the government appealed in an effort to support their 

37

own failure to timely adjudicate applications. Unfortunately, the Eleventh Circuit 

Court of Appeals reversed the District Court, finding that the Immigration Service 

lacked authority to act on my application after the end of the fiscal year, regardless 

of the merits of my case. The court even went so far as to note that a private relief 

bill is the remedy that would overcome the statutory barrier that prohibits the INS 

from reviewing a case filed in a prior fiscal year. The U.S. Supreme Court recently 

declined certiorari in my case. 

I am fortunate that my family and I have not had to face this situation alone. 

Members of my church have stood by me in every way possible. I want to take this 

opportunity to publicly thank them from the bottom of my heart. 

I also am very grateful to Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), the chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Citizenship, for introducing 

legislation, S. 2089, which would address my situation. This targeted legislation 

would provide welcome relief to people like my family and me and others who, during fiscal years 1998 through 2003, were unable to obtain permanent residence 

under the DV program because the fiscal year ended before their cases were approved. The bill authorizes such individuals to reopen their cases and continue processing as long as diversity visas for the fiscal year in which they filed remain available. 

I am very excited to see the positive efforts of Senator Chambliss and the other 

members of the Senate who support helping those persons such as me, who have 

been deprived of the legal benefit of permanent residence by the inaction of the 

former Immigration Service. I hope the Senate will move quickly on this legislation. 

I also hope that Members of the House of Representatives will quickly introduce and 

pass this worthy legislation. 

Law-abiding people who follow the rules, pay the required fees, and rely on the 

government’s procedures should not be punished because of government inaction. 

Thank you again for allowing me to testify.

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Thank you, Mr. Nyaga, and without objection, 

your letters of support will be entered into the record after your 

statement. 

[The material referred to follows:]

38


Nyaga1.eps
39


Nyaga2.eps
40


Nyaga3.eps
41


Nyaga4.eps
42


Nyaga5.eps
43


Nyaga6.eps
44


Nyaga7.eps
45


Nyaga8.eps
46


Nyaga9.eps
47


Nyaga10.eps
48


Nyaga11.eps
49

Mr. HOSTETTLER. The chair now recognizes, for purposes of an 

opening statement, the gentlelady from Texas, Ms. Jackson Lee. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. I thank the distinguished Chairman very 

much for his kindness, and I thank the panelists for their presentation. I was in an earlier meeting, and I appreciate very much 

their statements. 

This hearing today is one that points to an overall systemic problem, and that is that the immigration policies of the United States 

are in shambles. I think if I had to calculate the hearings that we 

have had over the last session, it has been a journey of problems. 

We have not had an opportunity to put forward solutions, reforms. 

We have heard the Administration speak eloquently about changes 

to the system, one summer, 1 year after another with no action. 

So here we go again with another hearing discussing the inadequacies and inequities of a system that is broken that needs to be 

fixed. Now, whether or not you wish to topple the Statue of Liberty, 

which some of the witnesses desire to do or as others are victimized 

by a system that is crumbling, clearly, we need to begin to put on 

track this Nation’s position and posture as it relates to immigration. 

There is no doubt that this Nation will continue to be perceived 

as the greatest Nation in the world, and that means that individuals coming to seek not only a better life because we always utilize 

that terminology, but to come to be on the soil of a place that provides justice, and freedom, and equality, and dignity. 

Mr. Chairman, I was with a group of individuals just a couple 

of days ago celebrating the 56th anniversary of the independence 

of Israel, and one of those who was part of the celebration, who had 

not been born in this country, but was a citizen, indicated that 

whenever she comes back to the country—this Nation—she desires 

to lay flat and kiss the ground. Now, that is the image of America. 

That is what people perceive America to be, and it is certainly tragic that we have had an Administration that has failed to realize 

the need for consistency and to realize the need for a pronounced 

policy, to reunite relatives, to provide order to Diversity Visa Programs, to protect children who have aged out, to address various 

ethnic groups who have suffered in a system of indifference—Haitians and Africans—and so here we are today. 

It may be why I will, in about 40 minutes, introduce H.R. 3918, 

the Comprehensive Immigration Fairness Act of 2004, which I hope 

the Chairman will give us the opportunity to have hearings on before this Committee. If we do not begin to have a vigorous discussion, questions of fraud and abuse on different isolated policies will 

continue to exist, and we will continue not to fix the problem. We 

will just simply be here over, and over and over again. 

Mr. Chairman, I know your frustration. We may disagree on 

ways to get to the ultimate journey, which is to have a policy that 

immigrants and others alike, enforcers can understand, so that in 

Houston, Texas, we do not have individuals fleeing schools and 

worksites of Hispanic origin because they believe there is going to 

be a raid at hospitals and schools. This is frivolous. This is a country that invented electricity, the light bulb, trains and buses, and 

yet we cannot seem to sit down for a reasonable program. 

50

We all know what the Diversity Visa Program is all about. We 

realize that it is only limited to six geographic regions. Mr. Chairman, it has been put in place so we can fix the broken system. The 

program does not provide visas for countries that have sent more 

than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the past 5 years. 

The top countries in the latest year for which detailed data is available, fiscal year 2002, were places like Albania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, 

Poland and Ukraine, countries that, overall, may have a number 

of other issues, but we have not necessarily seen a waive of terrorists coming in from those Nations. In fact, Poland now is a new 

member of the NATO alliance. 

This is a lottery program, and we know that the problems have 

come about through fraudulent ID and identity theft, maybe. We 

realize that the Office of the Inspector General for the State Department issued a report on the Diversity Visa Program. According 

to the report, the Diversity Visa Program is subject to widespread 

abuse, why we are here today. 

If we had a reform in the immigration policy, access to legalization for those who are illegally in this country and other reunification efforts, we might not be at this hearing today. We would give 

lawyers the opportunity to have a real road map that they could 

follow with their clients. We could eliminate the 6 million backlog 

in benefits where there are people in line legally or trying to access 

legalization in a legal way. We would have a situation, Mr. Chairman, where a student who had an I–94, went to Mexico on a summer break, left the I–94 in her school dorm, did something foolish 

because she is young, coming across the border from Mexico in the 

United States, they asked her if she was a citizen. The kids with 

her said, ‘‘Say, yes,’’ and of course she was not. Got caught. Had 

all of her documents, but in a dorm like kids will do, their keys in 

their car, as opposed to where they’re supposed to be. And so we 

have to face the problem of her being deported who has been in 

this United States for almost 20 years, has a husband and a child. 

It is an outrage. This program is likewise filled with outrage. 

Mr. Chairman, I believe that this program is worthy of fixing. It 

is not meritorious of the condemnation that some of the witnesses 

this morning have begun to do because that is their life’s work, to 

condemn immigration policies and to suggest that we must go back 

to the Neanderthal days when we did not extend to those who 

sought an opportunity to come here. It is foolish. It won’t work. 

And the only thing that is going to help us is to use the electronic 

improvements that we have begun to use in the diversity program 

or the diversity system and make sure that we are diligent in 

eliminating the suggestion of fraud, but to eliminate the program 

would be foolish. 

I would just close by simply saying that I believe Mr. Nyaga, a 

native of Kenya, has very eloquently stated his case. He has proven 

that he is no threat to this country. In fact, some of us might think 

that we need more prayer, and so I would hope that by hearing his 

story we realize that people who follow the rules and follow timely 

diversity visa applications should not lose their immigration benefits on the account of accounting and processing delays. 

51

I would ask this Committee to seriously think, to get back on 

track to be reformers and individuals who can put this immigration 

policy on track and begin to set us straight. 

I yield back, and I thank the Chairman. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. I thank the gentlelady. 

The chair will now recognize Members of the panel for 5 minutes 

for questions. 

Dr. Camarota, the Committee has been told that one of the main 

flaws in the visa lottery is that applicants file multiple applications 

under different names or different variations of their names. To 

your knowledge, is this a common occurrence? 

Mr. CAMAROTA. Yes, it is, for the obvious reason that the more 

you submit, the better your probability of selection based on statistics. And then this is one of the reasons why so many of the subsequent winners don’t qualify is because then they have to come up 

with the bogus documents to back up the names that they submitted their applications under. 

Now, since such a large share from countries—come from countries with a kind of weak document regimen or a system where 

documents are notoriously unreliable, they can often do that, but 

this creates an enormous problem because one of the fundamental 

things that we have to do to keep out criminals, and terrorists and 

other people who are not qualified is verify identity. But the whole 

visa lottery itself encourages people to, if you will, disguise their 

identity because we reward, if you will, multiple applications under 

different names and then people have to back that up. And this is, 

I think, one of the many problems with the lottery itself. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. How difficult is it for lottery winners to obtain 

fraudulent documents to back up their fraudulent application? 

Mr. CAMAROTA. Obviously, it would vary quite a lot from country 

to country. But according to International Transparency’s Index, 

many of the top winners, in fact, most of them, are countries that 

rank highest in fraud and abuse. So, in that environment, a false 

driver’s license, a false record of work, a false birth certificate. The 

kinds of things that consular officers would rely on are apparently 

pretty easy to come by. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Thank you. 

Ambassador Patterson, in your testimony you state that the Diversity Visa Program is fraught with fraudulent applications, and 

the State Department is authorized to charge fees to maintain the 

program. Could you tell us why the State Department has not 

charged the necessary fees for the program that would help in aiding in the exposure of fraud and elimination of fraud in the Diversity Visa Program. 

Ms. PATTERSON. Well, the Department, for the winners, is planning to raise the fee this year to recoup the cost. But I think the 

basic answer is, under the old paper-based system, it simply wasn’t 

practical. When this cash would flow into the Kentucky Consular, 

it would not have been feasible to have cash flow into the Kentucky 

Consular Center in an envelope with the application. 

Now, that they’re on an electronic system, we have systems like 

PayPal or credit cards or debit cards that would make this much 

more feasible. We think it would—we had a lot of discussion about 

this in preparing for the testimony—we think it would probably reVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:04 Jun 30, 2004 Jkt 089266 PO 00000 Frm 00055 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 G:\WORK\IMMIG\042904\93387.000 HJUD1 PsN: 93387
52

quire legislation to allow the Department to recoup more than its 

costs, but one thing we were particularly concerned about in our 

report was not so much the recovery of costs, but funding the personnel overseas that we need to investigate these cases of identity 

theft and false records. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Now, when you suggest covering the costs, with 

your last statement——

Ms. PATTERSON. Yes. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER.—part of the cost is not considered to be the 

fraudulent application investigations? 

Ms. PATTERSON. It’s very hard to get those figures very precisely, 

and some of the consulates that have a very high number of DV 

winners are basically small posts with no adequate personnel. This 

probably wouldn’t be true of a place like Nigeria, of course, but it 

is true of a place like Albania. So they need more personnel to 

work directly on the DV Program. 

We also mentioned that some of these costs are hard to ascribe 

across programs and more work needs to be done on that, but our 

view is strongly that some fees should be levied for entering the 

program at all. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. So the legislation that you’re speaking of has 

to do with the authorization or appropriation of more personnel? 

Ms. PATTERSON. Yes, that would be, in our view, the greatest 

weakness and the place where money is most needed at this point. 

The recovery of costs, our estimate was $840,000, but the bigger 

problem is overseas and the ability to investigate the fraudulent 

cases. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. So there is not a policy issue with regard to investigating fraud; it is just a matter of manpower. 

Ms. PATTERSON. It is not a policy issue, and in some places we’ve 

had quite remarkable success, like in Nigeria, in investigating 

some of these cases. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Thank you. 

Professor Ting, you have provided the Committee with an extensive discussion of the history of the visa lottery. And what were the 

original purposes of the visa lottery? 

Mr. TING. Well, I think it’s clear from the history, if you look 

back to 1987, that the purpose of visa lottery was mainly to bring 

Europeans to the United States. And I think if you look at the most 

recent statistics for fiscal years 2002 and 2003, out of the six regions, the regions sending the most people under the DV Program 

continues to be—and always has been as far as I can tell—Europe. 

And that was an explicit purpose, and I think anyone who looks 

back at the history of the program, back to the original program 

back in 1987, can see that it was transparently a device to bring 

more Caucasians to the United States. And I think the fact that 

it now also brings significant numbers of Africans and 

Bangladeshis to the United States does not mitigate the discriminatory nature of the program which continues to this day. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Thank you. 

The chair recognizes the gentlelady from Texas for 5 minutes for 

questions. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

53

Let me try to understand, Mr. Camarota, what your angst is 

with these policies. You stated that the lottery’s very existence tells 

hundreds of thousands of other people living here illegally, who 

have no realistic means of ever getting a green card, that they 

should not go home because one day they too may be in the visa 

lottery if they play it long enough. 

The current estimate is that we have between 8 and 14 million 

undocumented aliens in this country. Do you have any evidence to 

show that a substantial portion of them would leave the country if 

the Diversity Visa Program was terminated? 

Mr. CAMAROTA. Well, that’s why I said several hundred thousand, assuming that there are 8 to 10 million illegal aliens in the 

United States, and according to the INS, about 70 percent are presumably from Mexico, and then Central America and so forth, 

countries often outside of the visa lottery. But there are clearly several hundred thousand people in the United States illegally who 

are nationals of countries that could benefit from the lottery. 

We do have some anecdotal evidence. Obviously, there was a survey done of legal immigrants, and it did appear that a third of 

those who were lottery beneficiaries back in the 1990’s were residing here illegally. Additionally, very often lottery applicants will 

give an address within the United States—again, this provides evidence that a large share are illegal. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. May I just——

Mr. CAMAROTA. So I think there’s pretty strong evidence that a 

significant share of visa lottery winners are——

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Thank you for that answer. 

I would imagine we could also say that a grain of sand on an 

ocean beach might ‘‘spurry’’ up and fly up in the air and gather 

dust and become a boulder that lands in Jackson, Mississippi, and 

kills 500 people. There are a lot of things that we could speculate. 

That’s what anecdotal evidence is all about, from my perspective. 

Let me suggest to you that I would be very confident in taking 

a roving microphone and would go to any immigrant community in 

the United States where people are living illegally and pose a question to someone, not a lawyer or an immigrant advocate, and ask 

them are they waiting to get into the Diversity Visa Program, and 

I would venture to say that most would look at me in shock and 

askance because they probably have never heard of it. 

So I think your anecdotal evidence is weak at best. I think, as 

I said, my premise is that we need to be in the business of reform. 

My question to you, then, what is your suggestion in terms of if we 

have this visa waiver program, what is your ultimate suggestion—

elimination? 

Mr. CAMAROTA. Did you say visa waiver program? I’m sorry. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Excuse me, the Diversity Visa Program. What 

is your point; is it elimination? 

Mr. CAMAROTA. Yes, and as I indicated, I don’t think it’s——

Ms. JACKSON LEE. What is your philosophy or what is your proposal for an immigration policy in the United States, short of, well, 

let me not put words in your mouth, but short of that we want to 

make sure that we have no policy? So do you have a way for immigrants to come into the country? 

54

Mr. CAMAROTA. Obviously, it would take a long time to answer 

your question, so let me answer it this way. I think the United 

States can, and should, accept more people for permanent residence, that is, green cards, than any other country in the world—— Ms. JACKSON LEE. You think they should. 

Mr. CAMAROTA. We should accept more people. Presently, we’re 

accepting about three times as many as the next nearest country, 

which would be Canada, but certainly I think we can accept more 

and should accept more. 

I think that I basically come down where the late Barbara Jordan came down, is that we should have a system where we decide 

who it is we’re going to admit every year, and then admit all of 

those people, but that system should be built around basically families, immediate families—not more extended. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. You support 245(i)? That’s—Mr. Chairman, I 

think we have an enormous announcement here that should be 

really reported by the news because we’ve got Dr. Camarota, if I’m 

pronouncing his name correctly, and forgive me if I’m not, announcing to open the doors for legal permanent residents. We’ve got him 

announcing family reunification, which is 245(i). 

I think we can talk, Dr. Camarota, and I am going to go to Dr. 

Nyaga, if I could. 

Mr. CAMAROTA. Let me just say that I did not endorse giving out 

green cards to illegal aliens, that is, people here illegally. So what 

I said is that our legal immigration system should reflect I think 

what the Jordan Commission suggests. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. And let me just say, and great respect for the 

esteemed Barbara Jordan, who sat in this seat preceding me, is 

that not being here to explain in this element and climate further 

her thoughts, I respect what you have said. 

I was going to Mr. Nyaga, and I will end on this. What would 

you like to see as a conclusion to your application, sir, since you 

believe that the system weeded you out, as opposed to you ignoring 

the rules and not following the rules? What would be the best conclusion for you? 

Mr. NYAGA. Madam, the best way to look at my case would be 

to adjudicate my case, give me relief. Because, right now, I’m facing 

deportation, after having done all the Government asked me to do. 

I followed all of the rules. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. And you did not present yourself in a fraudulent manner or an abusive manner. 

Mr. NYAGA. I did not, ma’am. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. And you are here with a family. 

Mr. NYAGA. Yes, ma’am. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. We thank you very much for your testimony, 

and your expression and knowledge about this system. Thank you 

very much. 

I yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. The chair recognizes the gentleman from Iowa, 

Mr. King, for 5 minutes. 

Mr. KING. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I direct my first inquiry to Professor Ting, and I think just a simple point to clarify. 

And that would be that you made the statement that the Diversity Lottery discriminates solely on the basis of ethnicity. Would 

55

you concede that the language of it discriminates on the basis of 

national origin? 

Mr. TING. Yes. I mean, I’m not sure how we would parse the distinction that you’re making. Clearly, it’s based on where you were 

born, and I use as an example the child of Chinese diplomats born 

in Malawi, which, by the way, is a real case, and that individual 

did qualify as a native of Africa and did gain a green card in the 

United States. So that is the case. 

But I do think it’s discriminatory, and I think in response to an 

earlier question from Congresswoman Lee, the reason most illegal 

aliens don’t know anything about the Diversity Visa Lottery is because they’re not eligible for it. The discrimination is so great that 

most of the illegal aliens in the United States, particularly from 

Latin America and Asia, are not eligible for it. So, of course, it’s 

not high in their minds. 

Mr. KING. And then, Professor Ting, would you also, having conceded that technical point and made your point as well, would you 

concede that a Nation has a right, and sometimes possibly a duty 

to discriminate on immigration policy or do we have an obligation 

to put the perfect multicultural formula into our immigration policy 

so that we get the balance from the rest of the world? 

Mr. TING. Well, the Supreme Court has held unanimously that 

we can discriminate in immigration on any basis that we want. If 

we decide we don’t want any more Chinese in the country, that is 

okay, and we can do that today or tomorrow. If we want to have 

a quota system that specifies how many people we take in from 

each country, we can do that. 

I would suggest that that is not good policy, that we should look 

at what’s in the best interests of the United States. We should decide what our national priorities are. I commend the Congress for 

identifying family reunification and bringing job skills, useful 

skills, to the United States as the primary purposes behind our immigration policy. I think those ought to be our priorities. 

Mr. KING. Then, could I ask you, also, there seems to be a sense 

that the proportion of the European immigrants has gone down 

since 1965. Could you give some perspective into the implications 

of the change of the immigration law in 1965 that might have initiated such a change in that proportion? 

Mr. TING. Well, sure. I mean, up until 1965, the quota for Asian 

countries was typically about 100 per year, about 100 per year from 

a country like China. And when it was proposed in 1965 that the 

discriminatory quota system be lifted, there was, I understand, a 

heated discussion in Congress as to whether this would, in fact, set 

off a wave of Asian immigration to the United States. And it was 

only upon the reassurance that this was not, in fact, going to happen that Congress felt comfortable abolishing the discriminatory 

immigration system, the quota system that was there. Of course, 

after 1965, the wave of Asian immigration occurred. And most of 

the Asians—— Mr. KING. In many cases then—excuse me—in many cases then 

it becomes a political question rather than a legal question, but I 

do appreciate your remarks on that. 

I direct to Dr. Camarota—I see my time unfolding here—the 

broad and general question that I would like to have the opporVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:04 Jun 30, 2004 Jkt 089266 PO 00000 Frm 00059 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 G:\WORK\IMMIG\042904\93387.000 HJUD1 PsN: 93387
56

tunity to ask each one of the panel members would be how does 

the Diversity Lottery enhance the economic, the social and the cultural well-being of the United States of America? And wouldn’t 

that be the central question that we should ask before we adopt 

any immigration policy? 

Mr. CAMAROTA. Absolutely. I couldn’t—I agree with that 100 percent. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t select people based on some 

skill, and it doesn’t satisfy a humanitarian concern, it doesn’t satisfy some need of the U.S. economy. It doesn’t even bring the diversity that it purports to, quite frankly. I can find no logical reason 

to burden the immigration system with this program. 

Mr. KING. Thank you. 

Mr. Nyaga, would you care to answer that question? 

Mr. NYAGA. I would say I would tend to differ with Dr. 

Camarota—I’m sorry—because he may be looking at a very, very 

small number of the people who are in the woods hiding, but I 

work two jobs, I pay my taxes, and there are so many of us who 

do that. So, if you are looking at just a small percentage, then you 

can say what you are saying here. But I believe the majority of the 

immigrants who come here are looking for a better life, and they 

help the economy as much as the Americans do. We work a lot 

more than the Americans do sometimes. Would you contend that? 

Mr. KING. Mr. Nyaga, I would just make the point, as our clock 

ticks down here, that I see a humanitarian interest in this, and 

that’s the only way that I can justify the Diversity Lottery, and 

there are 6-point-some billion humanitarian interests across the 

planet, and I would make the point that no Nation can address all 

of the humanitarian interests that there are around the globe. 

My time is up. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. Thank you. 

I would ask unanimous consent for the chair to be given an additional 5 minutes for questioning, which it will yield to the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Goodlatte, for any questions that he may 

have. 

Seeing no objections, the gentleman may proceed for 5 minutes. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for that 

generosity. 

I would like to begin by noting that I was here when the wellrespected Jordan Commission, chaired by former Congressman 

Barbara Jordan, made recommendations to the Congress for substantial reforms of our immigration policy and would that the Congress had followed the recommendations of that commission at the 

time we would no longer be here talking about this issue because 

Ms. Jordan and her commission recommended the abolition, the 

elimination of the Visa Lottery Program. 

I think that that would have saved this country some additional 

problems because we, at this point, don’t know what national security effects have occurred as a result of people who, given the odds 

in any given year, we may have lots of people in this country who 

have been members of al-Qaeda or other organizations that have 

no criminal record, no background that would indicate that they 

are a terrorist suspect, but could very well be, very much similar 

to the hijackers on September 11th, 2001, most of whom did not 

have any significant background or record that would indicate they 

57

were likely to do the things that they did. That would include Mr. 

Hedayet, who entered this country as a part of the Visa Lottery 

Program, and killed some people at the El Al ticket counter in Los 

Angeles a few years ago. 

Ambassador Patterson, you’ve noted these concerns that the 

State Department has about the way the program operates and 

how it could be abused by terrorists and others. I take it that one 

of those recommendations is that we exclude participation in this 

program by those who are from countries that are on our statesponsored terrorism list? 

Ms. PATTERSON. Yes, sir, that would be consistent with other legislation. And there is an exclusion in that legislation or a waiver 

for individuals that the Secretary determines—that the Secretary 

makes a decision on. But with thousands, literally thousands, of 

people coming in from these, from these countries, and I should 

add that these individuals of course go through our normal immigrant visa process, and insofar as that we had information on 

them, it would be revealed. It still is of great concern to us, and 

we think it could be fixed by legislation. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. Sure. But there are only six or seven countries 

on that list of state-sponsored terrorism——

Ms. PATTERSON. Yes, sir. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. And in the detention facility in Guantanamo 

Bay, Cuba, right now are citizens of some 40 different countries 

that are suspected of being engaged in combat or terrorist activities 

against the United States, and Mr. Hedayet was from Egypt. 

That’s not a terrorist-sponsored state. Many of the 9/11 hijackers 

were from Saudi Arabia. That’s not a state that’s on that list. 

Why wouldn’t it make more sense just to simply eliminate the 

program, and we wouldn’t have to worry about the fraud that 

comes about that the other witnesses have referred to? We 

wouldn’t have to worry about the abuse of the system. 

Ms. PATTERSON. Well, from my narrow standpoint as Inspector 

General, our job is to recommend improvements in efficiencies in 

the program. I think your concern, though, is of course, well-founded, that people can come in and get green cards from other countries who are not on the terrorist list. Again, I think there have 

been improvements certainly in the processing of the immigrant 

visas, including the fingerprinting that may reduce this possibility, 

but the bottom line is I think it’s a program that can be taken advantage of by hostile intelligence officers or terrorists. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. In other words, the Department hasn’t taken a 

position, one way or another, on the underlying legislation. You 

simply offered observations about problems with the existing program. 

Ms. PATTERSON. Yes, sir. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. Very good. 

Mr. Ting, could you elaborate on the reasons why you believe the 

Visa Lottery Program does not align with our Nation’s current immigration policies. 

Mr. TING. Well, to the extent, our immigration policies, we have 

the most generous immigration system in the world, but to the extent that our priorities are family reunification and bringing people 

with job skills to America who can help build our economy up, I 

58

just think we’re failing. Our family reunifi—I mean the separation 

of immediate families, where we allow legal permanent residents 

to be in the United States without their spouses and without their 

minor children is, to me, unconscionable. And the notion that we’re 

bringing in 50,000 people chosen at random ahead of these individuals to me shows a misplaced set of priorities. 

I think, well, I’ll stop there. I think that’s a response to your 

question. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. It is, and I thank you. 

Dr. Camarota, you state that, ‘‘If one were to set out to design 

a visa that was ideal for terrorists, the visa lottery system would 

be it.’’ I wonder if you could elaborate on that and my observations 

earlier. 

Mr. CAMAROTA. Sure, because it doesn’t require any tie to an 

American institution, like an employer. It doesn’t require a family 

member to be in the United States. It’s specifically for people with 

no ties to the United States, existing ties—again, something that 

past terrorists have generally had. In addition to that, it’s——

Mr. GOODLATTE. Let me interrupt you on that point. In other 

words, if you’re in ‘‘X’’ country—let’s just say Saudi Arabia, where 

Osama bin Laden is originally from—and you want to put terrorists in the United States in furtherance of Osama bin Laden’s goal, 

you don’t have to have any contacts with the United States. You 

can simply start sending in names of people that you’ve recruited, 

that don’t have a criminal record, aren’t going to show up on anybody’s watch list or terrorist list and get them in here. 

Whereas, if you were consistent with the rest of our immigration 

policies, which relate to having a family relationship or an employment need, an employer in the United States who needs somebody 

here, you’ve got a much harder burden to find somebody who can 

fit into one of those particular pieces of the puzzle. But if you send 

in 50 or 100 names from Saudi Arabia of people who say, yes, I’ll 

go there, and I’ll be ready to do something when Osama bin Laden 

sends forth the next terrorist attack, they can do that with this 

program. They can’t very easily do that with any of our immigration programs. 

Mr. CAMAROTA. Not as easily. And the other thing I would say 

is you want to pick countries where fraud, and bribery, and corruption are very common so the securing of multiple identities or false 

identities would be easy, and you’d also want to pick countries 

where al-Qaeda is most active, and that’s what this does. 

And then, finally, what you’d want to do is give them a green 

card because temporary visas you have to go home, and there’s a 

whole bunch of restrictions on them, but the green card has very 

little. You can secure American documents, like a driver’s license, 

and you can get a hazardous materials license, you can travel to 

and from the United States as much as you want with a green 

card. So the very nature of this category is ideal for terrorists. If 

I were going to set out to design one, this would be it. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. Thank you very much. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. I thank the gentleman. 

Without objection, the gentlelady from Texas is recognized for a 

question. 

59

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I just 

wanted to make note of the fact that Ambassador Patterson did not 

choose to comment on the question of whether or not the program 

should be eliminated, which means that, as I understand what 

you’ve said—— Ms. PATTERSON. Yes, ma’am. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Which means that it gives us the opportunity 

to look at the comprehensiveness of the immigration policies and 

begin to establish something that makes sense, rather than the 

suggestion of I’ve got legislation, with all due respect to my colleague, to eliminate this, and eliminate this, and eliminate that. 

We need to get to be comprehensive. 

Let me just put in the record, Mr. Chairman, as I close, to suggest that the program is riveted with fraud and abuse, and it’s discriminatory, I take issue with that, and I would hope that we never 

get into the business of pitting Hispanics or Asians or Africans or 

Europeans against each other. We need a consistent policy. The Diversity Program was put in place because we have inconsistency. 

And so I would argue with Dr. Ting as to whether or not there is 

discrimination or not. We could probably do that for a long period 

of time. 

But just as a probably noteworthy example or an interesting example or maybe a fun example is that of Freddy Adu, the 14-yearold boy who is now the newest star in our National Soccer League, 

and particularly in Washington, D.C., and the youngest professional player in the U.S. He had great promise, couldn’t get in any 

other way. But for his entry to the U.S. on the Diversity Visa Program, that promise may not have been realized. The Diversity Visa 

Program does not provide opportunity for people who have few options to pursue their dreams, but most importantly it provides the 

diversity our country needs and, though small, the program adds 

to the important character of our country. 

So we have a lot to do on this issue, and I thank the Chairman 

for allowing me to submit that into the record, and I hope we will 

be looking to put forward a comprehensive program, and I look forward to hearing or having the opportunity for H.R. 3918 to be 

heard before this Committee. 

Thank you. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. I thank the gentlelady. 

The chair will just simply recognize that while there are tremendous success stories with the Diversity Visa Program, the question 

ultimately must be asked about the two individuals, for example, 

that perished in the airport in Los Angeles. Is the fame and potential wealth of this one soccer player worth the lives of the two individuals who were slain in the airport? And that is a question that 

we must ultimate pit all of our decisions against. 

So I appreciate the fact that the young man will benefit greatly 

as a result of America’s generosity, but there are two individuals 

that will have not benefitted from America’s generosity and, in fact, 

had funerals as a result of America’s generosity. 

So, in that——

Ms. JACKSON LEE. If the gentleman would just simply yield for 

a moment—— Mr. HOSTETTLER. No——

60

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Because I wouldn’t want it to be—— Mr. HOSTETTLER.—I’ve yielded. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. I wouldn’t want it to be thought that I had 

no concern for the loss of life, and so I would not want that to be 

on the record. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. I did not—— Ms. JACKSON LEE. I truly have sympathy for that. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. I did not—— Ms. JACKSON LEE. I just know that you can’t eliminate a program for the tragedies that have occurred, and so I would hope—— Mr. HOSTETTLER. That’s an interesting topic of discussion, too. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. I look forward to it, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. The perishing of 3,000 individuals on September 11th. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Correct, and it was on legal visas, and you’re 

absolutely right, and that’s why we must fix this system so it will 

work so that we can keep out terrorists, but allow those who want 

to come and do good in this country to be admitted. I agree with 

you, Mr. Chairman, very much. Thank you. 

Mr. HOSTETTLER. That’s why we must also deal with legal immigration, as well as illegal immigration, given the fact that the preponderance of those who perpetrated 9/11 did not only come here 

legally, but were here legally when they flew those planes into 

those buildings. 

The chair, recognizing that all Members will have seven legislative days to enter remarks and statements into the record, the 

business before this Committee being completed, the hearing is 

now adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:27 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 

(61)

A P P E N D I X 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING RECORD

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ELTON GALLEGLY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN

CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. The United States has the 

world’s most generous immigration policy. Approximately one million immigrants 

are legally admitted to this nation each year. In addition, it is estimated that another half million per year come to the United States illegally. 

I question whether the visa lottery program should continue. Under this program 

the U.S. hands out approximately 50,000 visas per year, largely on a random basis. 

The visa recipients are chosen without regard to US priorities to reunite families 

or provide workers for American industries in need. And, unfortunately, the program is rife with fraud and has been exposed to be a vehicle for extremists to enter 

the country. 

The program was originally designed to make visas available to nations that were 

not sending large numbers of immigrants. For example, Mexican citizens are not eligible. However, it does benefit people coming from nations where terrorism thrives. 

In fact, one of the beneficiaries of this program was Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, the 

terrorist that killed 2 and wounded 4 when he opened fire on the El Al counter at 

Los Angeles International Airport a couple of years ago. According to the Office of 

the Inspector General , between 2 and 4 percent of diversity visa issuances are to 

nationals of countries that are designated as state sponsors of terrorism. This greatly concerns me. 

I also have concerns with the incidence of fraud in the visa lottery. A partial study 

of the program exposed 360,000 duplicate applications in violation of the law. The 

Office of the Inspector General concluded, ‘‘Identity fraud is endemic, and fraudulent documents are commonplace. Many countries exercise poor control over their 

vital records and identity documents, exacerbating the potential for program abuse.’’

I am looking forward to the testimony of today’s witnesses, particularly in regards 

to these concerns. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back my time. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE SHEILA JACKSON LEE, A REPRESENTATIVE

IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS, AND RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE

ON IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY, AND CLAIMS

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) weighs the allocation of immigrant 

visas heavily towards aliens with close family in the United States and, to a lesser 

extent, aliens who meet particular employment needs. The diversity immigrant category was added to the INA to encourage new, more varied migration from other 

parts of the world. 

Diversity visas are limited to 6 geographic regions with a greater number of visas 

going to regions with low rates of immigration. The Diversity Visa Program does 

not provide visas for countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the 

United States in the past 5 years. The top 5 countries in the latest year for which 

detailed data is available, FY 2002, were Albania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Poland, and 

the Ukraine. 

Applicants for diversity visas are chosen by a computer-generated, random lottery 

drawing. The winners who can qualify for immigrant visas and are eligible for admission to the United States are granted legal permanent residence status. To qualify, an applicant must have completed twelve years of formal education (the equivalent of graduating from a United States high school) or 2 years of qualifying work 

experience. 

62

When aliens with diversity-based visas seek admission to the United States, they 

are inspected by Homeland Security officers in the same way that other immigrants 

are inspected. This is done to ensure that they are not ineligible for visas or for admission under the exclusion grounds in section 212 of the INA. 

In September of 2003, the Office of the Inspector General for the State Department issued a report on the Diversity Visa Program. According to the report, the 

Diversity Visa Program is subject to widespread abuse. Despite the rule against duplicate submissions, thousands of duplicates are detected each year. Identity fraud 

is endemic, and fraudulent documents are commonplace. Many countries exercise 

poor control over their vital records and identity documents, exacerbating the potential for program abuse. 

The report recommends legislative changes to bar aliens from states that sponsor 

terrorism; legislative changes that would permanently bar all adults identified as 

multiple applicants from future diversity visa programs; legal authority to make the 

program self-financing; and the establishment of standards to improve the application of the program eligibility criteria. 

The State Department has made changes in the application process to deal with 

the problem of duplicate applications. It has converted from paper to electronic applications and has required each applicant to include an electronic photograph. This 

new application process went into effect for the FY 2005 visas. State has selected 

approximately 80,000 winners from the 6 million applications it received for this 

drawing, and it will compare all 80,000 winning applications to the entire field of 

6 million applications. This new processing system should be effective in detecting 

duplicate applications. 

The electronic application system, however, has created a new problem. Many 

people waited until the last 2 days of the 60-day application period before submitting their applications. This overwhelmed the registration computers. A substantial 

number of applications were not filed, despite the fact that they were submitted 

during the 60-day filing period. 

I also am concerned about the effect of government processing delays on the people who win the diversity lottery. Applications for diversity visas must be processed 

before the end of the fiscal year for which they are won. If an application is not 

processed before that deadline, the visa is lost, regardless of the circumstances. 

Every year, a substantial number of diversity visa applicants lose their chance for 

lawful permanent resident status this way. This happened to Charles Nyaga, a native of Kenya, who came to the United States with his family as a student and is 

currently pursuing a master’s degree in divinity. I have asked him to come to this 

hearing and share his story with us. People who follow the rules and file timely diversity visa applications should not lose their immigration benefits on account of 

processing delays. 

Thank you.

Æ