The morning after a deadly terrorist attack in New York City, President Donald Trump tweeted “The terrorist came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based.”
Trump was referring to an attack in which 29-year-old Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov killed 8 people and wounded 12 more with a rented truck in lower Manhattan. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Saipov did indeed enter the United States with a diversity immigrant visa.
Was this program “a Chuck Schumer beauty”?
Senator Chuck Schumer was the lead sponsor of a House bill in 1990 that included diversity visas. Diversity visas became part 3 of the Immigration Act of 1990, which was signed into law by then-President George H. W. Bush.
Yet while Chuck Schumer was the lead sponsor on a House bill that included diversity visas in 1990, and while some of that bill influenced the Immigration Act of 1990, Schumer was not the lead sponsor of the final bill.
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01.21.2025