Federal Judge Orders Diversity Visa Lottery Registration to Reopen

An appointed judge is forcing the State Department to reopen a green card lottery program after it was paused because the suspected gunman who killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor last year entered the US through it. Our senior foreign policy correspondent Gillian Turner

is reporting live on this out of Washington. Hi, Gillian.

Hi, Sandra. One of the ways, uh, the Trump administration has really sought to crack down on immigration during the second term is by shuttering this so-called diversity visa lottery.

But now a federal judge is ordering Secretary Rubio to open it back up to 55,000 foreigners every single year.

The judge writes in his ruling, take a look, "Defendant shall open the registration period for the fiscal year 2027 diversity visa program by midnight October 18th," that is Sunday, "and the registration period shall last for 30 days." The State Department says, quote,

"Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Rubio, the Department of State is putting American interests first in our visa process."

Th- this program's been in place since 1990 for the purpose of offering green cards to people from countries with very low rates of immigration to the United States.

But in August, the State Department paused this program in the wake of a horrendous crime allegedly committed by a man in the US courtesy of a diversity visa, citing concern that the, quote, "visa process upholds the highest standards for US national security and public safety. This action is being taken in light of concerns raised

by the shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor."

Here's the rub. Even experts who are generally supportive of the diversity visa lottery in this country tell us the program is flawed.