Screen shot from "22,000 Tears" Facebook page
It has not been a good week for the non-winners of the 2012 federal green card lottery known as the Diversity Visa Lottery Program.
In May, roughly 22,000 people around the world who had applied for the visa lottery operated by the U.S. State Department were notified they had won – then were quickly notified again that no, they had not, as there had been a computer error and the results would be voided. Several filed a class-action lawsuit to halt a new lottery; others mounted a social media campaign to have their results recognized.
Last week, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit. A new lottery has since been held. And this Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee will be marking up a bill that aims to get rid of the 20-year-old lottery program, which has long faced opposition. Yale Law School professor Peter H. Schuck condemned it last week in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece:
A green card to the U.S. is one of the most valuable pieces of paper in the history of the world. So why would we want to give roughly 5% of them each year to people who, for all we know, have nothing more to offer America than a high school education, a winning ticket and (in many cases) an agent they paid to help them game the lottery system?
None of this is stopping some of those who were told erroneously that they had won, whose hopes were pinned on the news. On the “22,000 Tears” Facebook page, some people vowed to keep fighting for a reversal of the State Department’s decision to void their results.
