Washington Examiner

5 million immigrants enter under ‘diversity visa,’ 345% more than promised

Nov 6, 2017
Paul Bedard

The number of immigrants let into the U.S. under the “diversity visa” program pushed by Sen. Chuck Schumer and blamed in last week’s New York City terror attack is expected to reach nearly 5 million, more than 300 percent higher than promised, according to a new report.

While some 1.1 million since 1994 have or are slated to receive the visa in a lottery at a rate of about 50,000 a year, a loophole in the system allows them to bring in family members and that “chain migration” average is 3.45 additional immigrants per lottery winner, said the Center for Immigration Studies.

As a result, another 3,803,187 have or are expected to arrive, bringing the total let in under the special visa to 4.9 million.

“When accounting for chain migration, the visa lottery may have brought in more than 3.8 million people in total since 1994. Despite its supporters’ assurances that the visa lottery is responsible for only 50,000 immigrants in any given year, chain migration means that the program actually accounts for perhaps 165,000 new immigrants per year because of earlier lottery winners sponsoring their relatives,” said the report. HERE