Data: 30 Percent of All Foreign Nationals with 'Diversity Visa' Came from Terror-Sponsored Nations

WASHINGTON, DC — Roughly 30 percent of all foreign nationals who have entered the United States through the Diversity Visa Lottery program in the last five years came from terrorist-sponsored nations, new data reveals.

Research conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shows the enormity of the Diversity Visa Lottery program, where the U.S. gives out 50,000 visas every year to foreign nationals from a multitude of countries, including those with known terrorism problems – such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Yemen, and Uzbekistan.

Over the last half-decade between 2012 and 2016, 72,794 foreign nationals have come to the U.S. on the Visa Lottery program from countries that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has designated as terrorist-sponsors, according to CIS researchers.

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