The Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme, created as an act of Congress in 1990, makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available each year through a random lottery for people from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the US. The majority of visas annually go to foreigners from Africa, according to State Department data.
For the 2026 lottery, about 129,500 people – including applicants and their spouses and children – were chosen, according to the State Department. They were selected at random from more than 20.8 million qualified entries submitted during an application period that ran from October to November 2024.
In 2023, the most recent data year available, a total of nearly 1.2 million people were awarded green cards in the US, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security.
Trump has long sought to limit the lottery programme, beginning in his first term. Although his initial travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries didn’t directly address the lottery, it effectively blocked many lottery candidates from those nations from being eligible for the programme.
The administration faced multiple legal challenges, including lawsuits from affected diversity visa recipients. In one case, a federal judge in 2020 ordered the Government to resume issuing visas to lottery winners covered by the ban.
In a separate case, a federal court in 2022 struck down a Trump-era rule requiring applicants have a valid passport to enter the lottery.
The administration’s latest move forms part of a much broader crackdown on immigration, often in response to violence his administration blames on lax policies.
The administration earlier clamped down on immigration from mostly developing nations after an Afghan national was suspected of shooting two National Guard soldiers in Washington.
It also moved to add a US$100,000 ($173,000) application fee for H-1B visas, often used by the tech sector, and has raised the prospect of vetting years of social media histories for tourists wanting to visit the US.
Trump pledged during his campaign to carry out the largest deportation in US history. Border patrol agents have been active in cities including Chicago and Los Angeles. The administration is also moving forward with plans to expand immigration detention capacity, potentially using up to two dozen warehouse “mega centres” across the country.
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