The result was the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT; PL 101-649). Enacted on November 29, 1990, IMMACT represented a major overhaul of immigration law. The law's focus was to increase the numerical limits on immigrants and change the preference system, giving a greater priority to employment-based immigration. The law also created a diversity program enabling immigrants from countries that had been ignored in the recent past to be admitted more easily to the United States.
The total number of immigrants was set at 700,000 annually from FY 1992 through FY 1994 and then revised to an annual level of 675,000 beginning in FY 1995. (FY stands for fiscal year. The government fiscal year begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following calendar year.) The 675,000 level allowed 480,000 family-sponsored immigrants, 140,000 employment-based immigrants, and 55,000 immigrants who were eligible under the diversity program.
Employment-Based Immigration
IMMACT nearly tripled the allowed level of employment-based immigration—from 54,000 to 140,000. The goal was to attract professional people with skills that would promote economic development in the United States. This was in contrast to the unskilled workers who were legalized through IRCA. The allotment of 140,000, however, included both workers and their families so the actual number of workers was considerably lower. IMMACT allocations included:
- Preference 1—forty thousand visas for priority workers with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives and managers
- Preference 2—forty thousand visas for members of the professions holding advanced degrees or aliens of exceptional ability, both requiring the Secretary of Labor to certify that U.S. workers were not available and would not be hurt by the aliens' admission
- Preference 3—forty thousand visas for skilled workers with at least two years of vocational training or experience, professionals with the equivalent of a college degree, or needed unskilled workers (limited to ten thousand), all requiring labor certification
- Preference 4—ten thousand visas for special immigrants, including ministers of religion, persons working for religious organizations, foreign medical graduates, alien employees of the U.S. government abroad, and alien retired employees of international organizations, of which not more than five thousand could be religious workers
- Preference 5—ten thousand visas for employment-creation investors who invested at least one million dollars (or $500,000 in rural areas or areas of high unemployment) to create at least ten new jobs
Diversity Visa Program
IMMACT made new provisions for the admission of immigrants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The program was introduced as a temporary or transitional program from 1992 to 1994. In the first year of the diversity program (1992) the INS ran a lottery; the "winners" were chosen based on the chronological order of the receipt of the visa applications. Applicants were permitted to file multiple applications to improve their chances. In 1993 and 1994, selections were made randomly rather than by chronological receipt of applications. In addition, only one application per immigrant was permitted. The permanent Diversity Visa Program began in 1995.
Under the permanent program, initially no country was permitted more than 7% (3,850) of the total 55,000 visas, and Northern Ireland was treated as a separate state. To be eligible, aliens were required to have at least a high school education or its equivalent, or at least two years of work experience in an occupation that required a minimum of two years training or experience. The work experience had to be within the past five years. A person selected under the lottery program could apply for permanent residence and, if granted, the person was authorized to work in the United States. The individual's spouse and unmarried children under the age of 21 were also allowed to enter the United States.
Beginning with fiscal year 1999, the number of visas was reduced to fifty thousand so that five thousand visas could be allotted to participants in the 1997 Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA; PL-105-100). This law provided various immigration benefits and relief from deportation to certain Nicaraguans, Cubans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, nationals of former Soviet-bloc countries, and their dependents.
Results of the 2005 Diversity Lottery
The U.S. Department of State reported that 5.9 million qualified applications were received for the 2005 lottery during the sixty-day period November 1 to December 30, 2003 (Diversity Visa Lottery 2005 Results, Washington, DC: Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State, April 15, 2005). Assuming that some of the applicants would not pursue their visas, a total of 100,000 applications were drawn at random by a computer. Table 2.3 lists the FY 2005 lottery results by regions and countries.
According to the U.S. Department of State, between 2.5 and 3 million applications are rejected each year for failing to follow directions or because they were received outside of the submission period (U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, Security and Fairness Enhancement for America Act of 2003, 108th Congress, 2d session, October 6, 2004, H. Rept. 108-747). Of the 90,000 to 110,000 lottery "winners" each year, about 45% either fail to meet the minimum educational, work experience, or training requirements; fail to supply the required medical information; or fail to complete the additional required paperwork fully or on time. The remaining qualifying "winners" were issued diversity visas on a first-come, first-served basis until the requisite number of visas were issued or the fiscal year ended (September 30, 2005, for the 2005 lottery). Winners already living legally in the United States could apply to have their status adjusted.
For the fiscal year 2005 application period, natives of the following countries were ineligible to apply: Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. However, persons born in Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region), Macau SAR, and Taiwan were eligible.
On February 10, 2005, the U.S. Department of State announced that more than 6.3 million entries were received for the 2006 Diversity Visa Lottery ("2006 Diversity Lottery Registrations," http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2005/42131.htm). The two-month electronic registration period ran from noon on November 5, 2004, through noon, January 7, 2005. New antifraud technology in use for the 2006 Diversity Visa Lottery detected 31,334 exact duplicates, which were eliminated from the eligible entry pool. An additional 5,221 fraudulent entries were eliminated through the utilization of facial recognition and knowledge discovery software.
Efforts to End the Diversity Visa Program
In 2003 a bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to eliminate the diversity program. In its October 6, 2004, report in favor of the bill (Security and Fairness Enhancement for America Act of 2003, H. Rept. 108-747), the Judiciary Committee noted that it was commonplace for aliens to file multiple applications for the lottery using different aliases. The report stated that a partial check on applications filed in the 2003 lottery identified 364,000 duplicates. The report further noted that fraudulent documents were common in many countries due to poor control of vital records and identity documents. In addition to entry fraud, the visa lottery program had spawned a cottage industry of websites that offered to help applicants win the lottery for a fee. The problem became so widespread that the government posted electronic notices warning applicants that paying someone a fee to complete their application would not improve their chances in a random lottery drawing.
According to the Judiciary Committee report, the Diversity Visa Program posed a threat to U.S. national security. It noted that in the fiscal year 2004 lottery "24 Libyans, 1,183 Sudanese, 1,431 Iranians, 4 North Koreans, 64 Syrians, and 674 Cubans were selected. Each country is a state-sponsor of terrorism." While the report noted that the Department of State had implemented an electronic facial recognition system for processing applicants and had increased the verification of background information, the Judiciary Committee suggested that these efforts were not sufficient protection. At an April 29, 2004, hearing on the Diversity Visa Program before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims (House Judiciary Committee, Diversity Visa Program and Its Susceptibility to Fraud and Abuse, 108th Congress, 2d session, serial 82), Anne Patterson, Deputy Inspector General with the State Department, testified that the program "contains significant vulnerabilities to national security as hostile intelligence officers, criminals, and terrorists attempt to use it to enter the United States as permanent residents."
The Judiciary Committee report cited two specific examples of individuals, both admitted as family members of lottery "winners," who later were involved in
TABLE 2.3
Results of the diversity immigrant visa lottery, 2005
| Africa | |||||
| Algeria | 1,489 | Eritrea | 556 | Namibia | 11 |
| Angola | 14 | Ethiopia | 6,060 | Niger | 53 |
| Benin | 233 | Gabon | 29 | Nigeria | 6,725 |
| Botswana | 7 | Gambia, the | 136 | Rwanda | 51 |
| Burkina Faso | 76 | Ghana | 3,974 | Sao Tome and Principe | 0 |
| Burundi | 34 | Guinea | 268 | Senegal | 409 |
| Cameroon | 1,540 | Guinea-Bissau | 3 | Seychelles | 4 |
| Cape Verde | 6 | Kenya | 3,618 | Sierra Leone | 594 |
| Central African Rep. | 4 | Lesotho | 0 | Somalia | 364 |
| Chad | 22 | Liberia | 714 | South Africa | 390 |
| Comoros | 3 | Libya | 35 | Sudan | 1,015 |
| Congo | 47 | Madagascar | 28 | Swaziland | 6 |
| Congo, Democratic | Malawi | 44 | Tanzania | 356 | |
| Republic of the | 844 | 124 | Togo | 2,857 | |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 321 | Mauritania | 25 | Tunisia | 134 |
| Djibouti | 12 | Mauritius | 23 | Uganda | 244 |
| Egypt | 6,070 | Morocco | 5,298 | Zambia | 118 |
| Equatorial Guinea | 2 | Mozambique | 12 | Zimbabwe | 141 |
| Asia | |||||
| Afghanistan | 22 | Iraq | 48 | Nepal | 2,698 |
| Bahrain | 1 | Israel | 116 | Oman | 0 |
| Bangladesh | 7,404 | Japan | 373 | Qatar | 1 |
| Bhutan | 1 | Jordan | 44 | Saudi Arabia | 30 |
| Brunei | 1 | North Korea | 1 | Singapore | 35 |
| Burma | 531 | Kuwait | 16 | Sri Lanka | 386 |
| Cambodia | 164 | Laos | 4 | Syria | 26 |
| Hong Kong Special | Lebanon | 83 | Thailand | 102 | |
| Admin. Region | 77 | Malaysia | 87 | Taiwan | 367 |
| Indonesia | 258 | Maldives | 0 | United Arab Emirates | 13 |
| Iran | 820 | Mongolia | 55 | Yemen | 40 |
| Europe | |||||
| Albania | 3,380 | Georgia | 375 | Northern Ireland | 75 |
| Andorra | 1 | Germany | 1,275 | Norway | 25 |
| Armenia | 1,004 | Greece | 78 | Poland | 6,211 |
| Austria 91 | Hungary | 181 | Portugal | 51 | |
| Azerbaijan | 235 | Iceland | 5 | Macau | 12 |
| Belarus | 925 | Ireland | 205 | Romania | 2,521 |
| Belgium | 81 | Italy | 202 | San Marino | 0 |
| Bosnia & Herzegovina | 103 | Kazakhstan | 296 | Serbia & Montenegro | 425 |
| Bulgaria | 4,068 | Kyrgyzstan | 206 | Slovakia | 398 |
| Croatia 69 | Latvia | 158 | Slovenia | 6 | |
| Cyprus | 14 | Liechtenstein | 1 | Spain | 134 |
| Czech Republic | 169 | Lithuania | 1,114 | Sweden | 115 |
| Denmark | 42 | Luxembourg | 2 | Switzerland | 136 |
| Estonia | 64 | Macedonia, Former | Tajikistan | 83 | |
| Finland | 59 | Yugoslav Rep. of | 306 | Turkey | 1,803 |
| France | 384 | Malta | 0 | Turkmenistan | 78 |
| French Southern & | Moldova | 383 | Ukraine | 5,361 | |
| Antarctic Lands | 1 | Monaco | 0 | Uzbekistan | 1,551 |
| Martinique | 2 | Netherlands | 130 | Vatican City | 0 |
| New Caledonia | 1 | Netherlands' Antilles | 10 | ||
| Reunion | 3 | Aruba | 2 | ||
| North America | |||||
| Bahamas, The | 14 | ||||
| Oceania | |||||
| Australia | 787 | Nauru | 0 | Samoa | 6 |
| Cocos Islands | 2 | New Zealand | 290 | Solomon Islands | 1 |
| Fiji | 530 | Cook Islands | 0 | Tonga | 96 |
| Kiribati | 0 | Niue | 1 | Tuvalu | 0 |
| Marshall Island | 0 | Palau | 2 | Vanuatu | 0 |
| Micronesia, Federated | Papua New Guinea | 5 | |||
| States of | 0 |
TABLE 2.3
Results of the diversity immigrant visa lottery, 2005 [CONTINUED]
| South America, Central America, and the Caribbean | |||||
| Antigua and Barbuda | 4 | Dominica | 8 | Peru | 2,514 |
| Argentina | 221 | Ecuador | 308 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 3 |
| Barbados | 12 | Grenada | 7 | Saint Lucia | 4 |
| Belize | 3 | Guatemala | 25 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 14 |
| Bolivia | 108 | Guyana | 27 | Suriname | 3 |
| Brazil | 592 | Honduras | 35 | Trinidad and Tobago | 96 |
| Chile | 43 | Nicaragua | 14 | Uruguay | 18 |
| Costa Rica | 24 | Panama | 17 | Venezuela | 299 |
| Cuba | 674 | Paraguay | 14 | ||
| Note: Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2005: Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R., and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam. | |||||
terrorist activity. In one case a man who entered as a visitor applied for asylum, and was in deportation proceedings when his wife became a diversity lottery winner. As her spouse, the man was able to adjust his status. He was a lawful permanent resident when he killed two people and wounded several others in an incident at Los Angeles International Airport. In the second case, a man entered the United States with his parents who were lottery winners. In 2002 he pleaded guilty to conspiring to destroy buildings, affecting interstate commerce by means of fire or explosives.
Changing Grounds for Entry
IMMACT changed the political and ideological grounds for exclusion and deportation. The law repealed the ban against the admission of communists and representatives of other totalitarian regimes that had been in place since 1950. In addition, immigration applicants who had been excluded previously because of associations with communism were provided exceptions if the applicants had been involuntary members of the communist party, had terminated membership, or merely had close family relationships with people affiliated with communism.
Temporary Protected Status
IMMACT authorized the U.S. attorney general to grant temporary protected status (TPS) to undocumented alien nationals present in the United States when a natural disaster, ongoing armed conflict, or other extraordinary occurrence in their countries posed a danger to their personal safety. TPS lasted for six to eighteen months unless conditions in the alien national's country warranted an extension of stay.
TPS did not lead to permanent resident status, although such aliens could obtain work authorization. Foreign nationals who had been convicted in the United States of either a felony or two or more misdemeanors were not eligible for TPS. Once the TPS designation ended, the foreign nationals resumed the same immigrant status they had before TPS (unless that status had expired) or returned to any other status obtained while in TPS.
According to a January 7, 2005, posting on the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services Web site (www.uscis.gov/graphics/services/tps_inter.htm), TPS reregistration periods ended December 6, 2004, for nationals of Burundi and Sudan and January 3, 2005, for Honduras and Nicaragua. TPS ended February 27, 2005, for Montserrat. TPS registration periods were established August 24, 2004, to February 21, 2005, for Liberia, and January 7 to March 8, 2005, for El Salvador.
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