Liberal Forum

Misty » 02 Nov 2017 11:09 am » wrote: Actually the bill was supported by a bipartisan group of legislators and signed by President George H.W. Bush.

Schumer was a member of the gang of 8 who worked on immigration reform in 2013.
That bill would have done away with the Visa Diversity Program and increased merit based visas, which is what 45 always talks about, but it didn't pass the House.

Schumer was the lead sponsor of the bill.

A little more:


Some of that bill was later folded into the Family Unity and Employment Opportunity Immigration Act of 1990. According to the bill summary, it “[p]rovides for preference allocation systems for admission of family-sponsored, employment-based, and diversity immigrants, respectively. Bases diversity immigration on identification of low-admission states and regions.”
The bill — which had 32 co-sponsors, including Schumer and seven Republicans — passed the House 231-192 with a majority of Democrats voting for it, and a majority of Republicans against it.

Not really bipartisan.

THe senate version was:

The Senate version of the bill,
the Immigration Act of 1990, sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy, included similar provisions for “Diversity Immigrants.” Under the bill, diversity visa applicants were required to have a high school education or its equivalent or “two years of work experience in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience.” It passed the Senate overwhelmingly,
89-8. The bill received wide Republican support, including from Sen. Mitch McConnell, now the Senate majority leader. It was signed into law by Republican President George H.W. Bush.

http://www.factcheck.org/2017/11/schume ... a-lottery/


You will also find this little factiod:

A 2011
Congressional Research Service report similarly said that “[c]ritics of the diversity lottery warn that it is vulnerable to fraud and misuse and is potentially an avenue for terrorists, citing the difficulties of performing background checks in many of the countries eligible for the diversity lottery. Supporters respond that background checks for criminal and national security matters are performed on all prospective immigrants seeking to come to the United States, including those winning diversity visas.”


Schumer was instrumental in passing this bill. but that was along time ago. What is more troubling is if this was such a security risk why did none of the players involved write a stand alone bill to kill the program?