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The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, more commonly known as the Green Card Lottery, is designed to encourage immigration to the United States from countries that have low rates of immigration.
Up to 50,000 visas are awarded through the programme each year and are distributed regionally with limits on how many will be given to citizens of any one country.
Trump took aim at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for his role in creating the programme when he was a congressman from New York who devised the idea that became part of the Immigration Act of 1990, signed into law by former president George HW Bush.
The programme has been criticized for not taking into account US immigration needs and for being open to potential abuses.
Schumer and a group of seven other senators had sought to do away with the programme as part of a broader reform of immigration law that failed in the lower House of Representatives.
Trump backed a proposal earlier this year that would develop an immigration system focused on bringing in immigrants with specific skills and educational backgrounds.
The alleged attacker entered the US from Uzbekistan in 2010. That year, 3,356 Uzbeks were approved for green cards under the programme.
Up to 50,000 visas are awarded through the programme each year and are distributed regionally with limits on how many will be given to citizens of any one country.
Trump took aim at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for his role in creating the programme when he was a congressman from New York who devised the idea that became part of the Immigration Act of 1990, signed into law by former president George HW Bush.
The programme has been criticized for not taking into account US immigration needs and for being open to potential abuses.
Schumer and a group of seven other senators had sought to do away with the programme as part of a broader reform of immigration law that failed in the lower House of Representatives.
Trump backed a proposal earlier this year that would develop an immigration system focused on bringing in immigrants with specific skills and educational backgrounds.
The alleged attacker entered the US from Uzbekistan in 2010. That year, 3,356 Uzbeks were approved for green cards under the programme.
