It provided an alternative path to a green card for citizens of countries “adversely affected” by the 1965 reforms, including Ireland. In the spring, a government computer in Kentucky selects 100,000 entries for green card processing. He had obtained a green card as the husband of a lottery winner. But in 2007, the report said, the Government Accountability Office found no evidence that diversity visa winners posed a threat. While the senator sponsored what became the diversity visa program, he also was part of the so-called Gang of Eight, a group of Republican and Democratic senators whose comprehensive immigration bill in 2013 included provisions to eliminate the diversity visa program and allocate the visas by merit.

Source: New York Times November 01, 2017 23:02 UTC