AP FACT CHECK: Trump's visa lottery system doesn't exist
President Trump, once more either showing his ignorance..or just plain lying:
"President Donald Trump is looking for a fix to a problem that doesn't exist — stopping foreign countries from picking out troublesome people for a lottery to move to the U.S. They don't get to do that.
He's talking about the diversity visa program, which bears little resemblance to his common portrayal of it. Trump's mischaracterization of the program on the weekend followed a speech to conservatives Friday that drifted off the facts on the economy, the environment and more.
A look at his recent rhetoric:
TRUMP: "I mean we actually have lottery systems where you go to countries and they do lotteries for who comes into the United States. Now, you know they are not going to have their best people in the lottery, because they're not going to put their best people in a lottery. They don't want to have their good people to leave. ... We want people based on merit. Not based on the fact they are thrown into a bin and many of those people are not the people you want in the country, believe me." — Fox News phone interview Saturday night.
THE FACTS: That's not how it works.
The lottery program is run by the U.S. government, not foreign governments. Other countries do not get to sort through their populations looking for bad apples to put in a "bin" for export to the U.S. Citizens of qualifying countries are the ones who decide to bid for visas under the program.
The program requires applicants to have completed a high school education or have at least two years of experience in the last five years in a selection of fields identified by the Labor Department. Out of that pool of people from certain countries who meet those conditions, the State Department randomly selects a much smaller pool of winners. Not all winners will have visas ultimately approved, because they still must compete for a smaller number of slots by getting their applications in quickly. Those who are ultimately offered visas still need to go through background checks, like other immigrants.
The lottery is extended to citizens of most countries, except about 20. The primary goal is to diversify the immigrant population by creating slots for underrepresented parts of the world."
President Trump, once more either showing his ignorance..or just plain lying:
"President Donald Trump is looking for a fix to a problem that doesn't exist — stopping foreign countries from picking out troublesome people for a lottery to move to the U.S. They don't get to do that.
He's talking about the diversity visa program, which bears little resemblance to his common portrayal of it. Trump's mischaracterization of the program on the weekend followed a speech to conservatives Friday that drifted off the facts on the economy, the environment and more.
A look at his recent rhetoric:
TRUMP: "I mean we actually have lottery systems where you go to countries and they do lotteries for who comes into the United States. Now, you know they are not going to have their best people in the lottery, because they're not going to put their best people in a lottery. They don't want to have their good people to leave. ... We want people based on merit. Not based on the fact they are thrown into a bin and many of those people are not the people you want in the country, believe me." — Fox News phone interview Saturday night.
THE FACTS: That's not how it works.
The lottery program is run by the U.S. government, not foreign governments. Other countries do not get to sort through their populations looking for bad apples to put in a "bin" for export to the U.S. Citizens of qualifying countries are the ones who decide to bid for visas under the program.
The program requires applicants to have completed a high school education or have at least two years of experience in the last five years in a selection of fields identified by the Labor Department. Out of that pool of people from certain countries who meet those conditions, the State Department randomly selects a much smaller pool of winners. Not all winners will have visas ultimately approved, because they still must compete for a smaller number of slots by getting their applications in quickly. Those who are ultimately offered visas still need to go through background checks, like other immigrants.
The lottery is extended to citizens of most countries, except about 20. The primary goal is to diversify the immigrant population by creating slots for underrepresented parts of the world."
