--- title: President Trump Calls for Ending Diversity Visa Lottery description: President Trump called on Congress to end a green card lottery that may have led to the driver in a New York City attack getting into the country. canonical: https://time.com/5005647/diversity-visa-lottery-donald-trump/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-01T17:13:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:04:39.531Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Calls for Ending Diversity Visa Lottery Program og:description: "It's not nice. It's not good." og:url: https://time.com/5005647/diversity-visa-lottery-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa2a9e5b2bca6c92/6988e41f929fadc559bee4d9/president-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP-TAX REFORM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Calls for Ending Diversity Visa Lottery Program twitter:description: "It's not nice. It's not good." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa2a9e5b2bca6c92/6988e41f929fadc559bee4d9/president-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Calls for Ending Diversity Visa Lottery Program ## Video: Dramatic Footage of School Bus Caught Up in NY Attack [Watch (HLS stream): Dramatic Footage of School Bus Caught Up in NY Attack](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NsMuY9rB.m3u8) (0:43)  _Published 2017-11-01. The head of the New York City schools system says two staff members and two students were injured in a school bus that was struck by a motorist who drove a rented truck onto a bike path, killing eight people, according to the Associated Press._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 1, 2017 5:13 PM UTC  President Donald Trump at the White House on Oct. 31, 2017 President Donald Trump at the White House on Oct. 31, 2017Nicholas Kamm—AFP/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Nov 1, 2017 5:13 PM UTC President Trump called on Congress to end a [green card lottery](http://time.com/5005261/donald-trump-new-york-city-diversity-immigrant-visa/) that may have led to the driver in a [New York City attack](http://time.com/5004500/new-york-city-lower-manhattan-attack/) getting into the country. Speaking at a Cabinet meeting less than 24 hours after a [driver](http://time.com/5004635/new-york-city-attack-suspect-sayfullo-saipov-lower-manhattan/) killed eight and injured at least a dozen in Manhattan, Trump repeated his criticism of the Diversity Lottery Visa program from [tweets earlier in the morning](http://time.com/5005261/donald-trump-new-york-city-diversity-immigrant-visa/). “I am today starting the process of terminating the diversity lottery program,” he said. “I’m going to ask Congress to immediately initiate work to get rid of this program. The program “sounds nice,” Trump continued. “It’s not nice. It’s not good.” Trump argued that instead of the lottery, the U.S. should institute a “merit-based system.” In August, he [endorsed a longshot bill](http://time.com/4884914/immigration-raise-act-white-house/) by two Republican senators that would streamline merit-based immigration and cut legal immigration in half by 2027. **Read More:** [_What President Trump Got Wrong About the Green Card Lottery_](http://time.com/5005261/donald-trump-new-york-city-diversity-immigrant-visa/) “We don’t want lotteries where the wrong people are in the lotteries,” Trump said. “And guess what, who are the suckers who get those people?” The Diversity Visa Lottery program, which is aimed at boosting immigration from countries that traditionally send fewer immigrants to the U.S., was created as part of a bipartisan immigration effort in Congress in 1990 and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. The Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Eight sought to eliminate it in a 2013 immigration reform effort that was ultimately blocked by the House. On Wednesday, Trump blamed political correctness for the continuation of the lottery. “We have to get much tougher, we have to get much smarter, and we have to get much less politically correct,” he said. “We’re so politically correct that we’re afraid to do anything.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5005647/diversity-visa-lottery-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5005647/diversity-visa-lottery-donald-trump/"},"headline":"President Trump Calls for Ending Diversity Visa Lottery Program","datePublished":"2017-11-01T17:13:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:04:39.531Z","description":"President Trump called on Congress to end a green card lottery that may have led to the driver in a New York City attack getting into the country.","url":"https://time.com/5005647/diversity-visa-lottery-donald-trump/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","New York","Immigration"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa2a9e5b2bca6c92/6988e41f929fadc559bee4d9/president-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa2a9e5b2bca6c92/6988e41f929fadc559bee4d9/president-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP-TAX REFORM","caption":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP-TAX REFORM","creditText":"Nicholas Kamm—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5005647/diversity-visa-lottery-donald-trump/","name":"President Trump Calls for Ending Diversity Visa Lottery Program"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Dramatic Footage of School Bus Caught Up in NY Attack","description":"The head of the New York City schools system says two staff members and two students were injured in a school bus that was struck by a motorist who drove a rented truck onto a bike path, killing eight people, according to the Associated Press.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/NsMuY9rB/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-11-01T15:16:33.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NsMuY9rB.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5005647/diversity-visa-lottery-donald-trump/","duration":"PT43S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5005647/diversity-visa-lottery-donald-trump/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```