5/5/2004

U.S. Department of State testified before the Congressional Committee elaborating its findings on the current Immigration Lottery Program's security risk and widespread fraud. Based on the findings, the DOS recommended that applicants from state sponsors of terrorism should be excluded, that multiple applicants should be penalized, and that the program should charge application fees that would enable the Department to recoup its costs for hiring more people and would reduce the number of multiple applicants.

The inspector general of the U.S. Department of State has found that a program designed to welcome immigrants might open the door to criminals, terrorists or agents of hostile governments. Deputy Inspector General Anne W. Patterson urged the Congress April 29 to make the necessary changes in the law to close that door.

The inspector general's inquiry revealed security vulnerabilities in the Diversity Visa Program. This program is designed to encourage emigration to the United States from nations that are not well represented in this country, offering citizens of those nations the opportunity to obtain an immigrant's visa through selection by lottery. Citizens from nations that are designated as state sponsors of terrorism by the U.S. State Department are eligible to participate in this program even though they are severely restricted from obtaining visitors' visas. 

Patterson urged the Congress to close that opportunity to potentially hostile immigrants. "(A)liens fleeing oppression in countries such as Cuba, Libya, Syria, and Iran would be ineligible to apply for a visa via the Diversity Visa Program if our recommendation were implemented," said Patterson. She said the Department of State has expressed some concerns about that policy being imposed permanently on people attempting to flee oppressive governments. 

The inspector general's inquiry also found that thousands of applicants each year attempt to submit multiple entries in order to better their chances. She recommended that the Congress act to bar all further entries submitted by an applicant who attempts that ploy. The inquiry also uncovered fraudulent schemes devised in U.S. consulates in which some employees attempted to manipulate lottery applications for profit. 

Patterson acknowledged that the State Department has instituted new procedures and advanced technological application processing techniques since some of these problems were initially detected, and those changes may have diminished the occurrence of some of these problems. She said the inspector general will continue to investigate.

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