Back to the Visa Lottery

Published by

Clarissa

October 17, 2026

For years, I’ve been asking here on the blog why the apparently insane diversity visa lottery exists. Even as a leftist, I couldn’t understand that. The whole idea is too stupid. But now I have the answer:

US District Judge Jinsook Ohta has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate the diversity visa lottery for 2027, issuing a preliminary injunction to allow 55,000 people from around the world to apply for permanent residence in the US.

Treating a nation’s citizenship like a gambling operation is insulting and ridiculous. It’s incomprehensible to me why a judge should have any say on the existence of the visa lottery at all.

Yes, it’s 55,000 people, which is a very small number, but it’s the principle of the thing that is so appalling. No judge should have the power to dilute the meaning of nationhood.

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2 responses to “Back to the Visa Lottery”

Anonymous

October 18, 2026

Congress passed a law for a visa lottery to exist and has not repealed it, even now with Republicans in both houses. Do you really want the choice on which laws the government implements to flip every time there’s a new party in the White House?

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1. Clarissa
  
  October 18, 2026
  
  We’ve had executive powers suspend the entire course of our lives during COVID. We will continue paying for that for decades to come. So it’s hard to feel very upset about an outdated law being suspended for a bit.
  
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