TANCREDO of Colorado. The amendment is simple and straightforward. It would prohibit the use of funds in the bill to implement the Diversity Visa Program otherwise known as the "visa lottery." The visa lottery program was established in 1990 and awards about 50.000 permanentresident visas to foreign nationals by conducting a random lottery. In the last Congress. the State Departments inspector general testified before Congress that the Office of the Inspector General "continues to believe that the Diversity Visa Program contains significant risks to national security from hostile intelligence officers. criminals and terrorists attempting to use the program for entry into the United States as permanent residents." If for no other reason. national security is too important to allow this institutional randomness in our immigration policy. The visa lottery injects a level of unnecessary and responsible uncertainty into the immigration process. Our amendment is a practical provision that will make our Nation safer. When the House considered its immigration bill in the 109th Congress. the gentleman from Virginia and I joined together to offer an amendment eliminating the visa lottery program. and it passed with strong bipartisan support. I urge my colleagues to provide similarly strong support to this amendment. Mr.
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Visa visa visas immigration