America’s Strangest Immigration Program

America’s Strangest Immigration Program | LifeZette:
"Each year, 50,000 lucky lottery winners get green cards — with little regard to their skills.
If the United States were a college football team, it would be the equivalent of a legacy powerhouse — with first pick of all the most talented, skilled players coming out of high school.
Tens of millions of people around the world want to immigrate to America. 

With so many people wanting to come to the country, the United States could use education, job skills, personal wealth or any number of criteria to pick the cream of the crop.
Created in 1990 — originally out of a desire to make it easier for Irish immigrants — the Diversity Visa lottery program is designed to increase immigration from parts of the world that traditionally have not sent many immigrants to America. 

A computer randomly selects from among millions of people who apply each year.

Every year, though, a little-known immigration program awards 50,000 green cards based on something else — blind luck.
It would be the equivalent of a Division I college football team giving away a starting position each year to a randomly selected applicant to the program.
Although it accounts for less than five percent of the legal immigrants admitted to the country each year, critics contend the program is based on no recognizable interest — not to import people with needed skills or even to reunite recent immigrants with their families.
“It’s hard to believe that any country in the world would run a program like this,” said Roy Beck, president of the advocacy group NumbersUSA..."