DENIED ENTRY TO AMERICA
Trump-era policies bar diversity visa selectees
Amin Sistani and Nariman Davarani grew up together in Ahvaz, a city in southwest Iran.
They lived in the same neighborhood next to the oil company where their fathers worked. They spent their afterschool hours in the same gym, where Sistani honed his table tennis skills next to the basketball court where Davarani perfected his three-point shots. After high school, they pursued an engineering degree at the same college.
Their parallel journeys seemed to continue when both men received a golden ticket to come to the United States through the diversity visa program. It grants visas to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. through a random lottery process.
Despite overcoming the slim chance of being selected –– less than 1% on average –– only one of them was able to take advantage of the program. This was due to Trump-era policies that have largely halted the issuance of diversity visas and deprived many selectees of their once-in-alifetime opportunity to move to America.
Sistani, who won the lottery in 2015, booked a ticket to the U.S. the following year. But Davarani, who was selected five years later in 2020, never made his way here because of former President Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban” and later policies that restricted the inflow of immigrants in order to protect the U.S. workforce amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, the two men, both 30, live more than 7,000 miles away from each other.
Sistani, now a resident of Columbus’ North Side, is exploring new career options that would utilize his past work experience as an electrical surveyor and a salesman, while Davarani, in Ahvaz, is struggling with the lack of opportunities in his home country and the daily discrimination facing non-muslims like him and his family.
In Iran, “there are no jobs available, no new businesses that can be started, no opportunities,” Davarani said in a phone
Amin Sistani, creating a podcast from his Columbus apartment, emigrated from Iran with a diversity visa. Others have not been so lucky, as Trump-era policies largely paused the issuance of diversity visas and deprived many selectees of their opportunity to move to America.
interview. He used to own a store that offered computer services but lost it because of the pandemic and has not yet found another job.
“This is especially unfair because if I was from another country, I would have already had my visa,” said Davarani, who indicated that he is not religious. “But instead, I got stuck in administrative processing because of a travel ban, which targets primarily Muslim countries — and again, I am not even Muslim!”
Congress established the diversity visa program, also known as the “green card lottery,” in the Immigration Act of 1990 in order to “diversify” the country by inviting 55,000 immigrants every year to come to the U.S. In 1995, the Department of State administered the first-ever diversity visa lottery.
Participants of the program are people from smaller countries or countries without a significant immigration inflow to America. Natives of territories that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the previous five years — which always includes China, Mexico, Canada and dozens of other countries — are not eligible to apply.
To qualify for the program, applicants also have to meet certain criteria including education and work experience. The Department of State then randomly picks selectees based on an algorithm that takes into account the program’s preference for different regions.
Opponents of the program have tried to eliminate the visa category for years, arguing that the system might offer a way for fraudsters and terrorists to enter the country. But Trump’s policies were the first ones that undermined the diversity visa in practice.
His travel bans, which prevented most selectees of predominantly Muslim countries from getting their visas approved, were not repealed until President Joe Biden came into office in January.
Moreover, the former president’s COVID-19 proclamations, first carried out in April 2020, suspended the entry of immigrants who “present a risk to the United States labor market.”
Since lottery winners have to obtain their travel documents in less than one and a half years before their status expires, these rules effectively barred most diversity visa selectees from actually coming to the country and are still affecting lottery winners now that Biden is in office, according to Jana Al-akhras, a Columbus-based immigration attorney.
“We know the will of Congress when they created the diversity visa,” she said. “The name itself indicates that it was attempting to create a society in the U.S. that was more open and inclusive. That’s why it’s incredibly frustrating when people who deserve to be here can’t come here due to racist policies.”
Al-akhras works for Morrison Urena, a California-based law firm that focuses on advocating for the diversity visa program. Over the past two years, the firm filed six lawsuits against the Trump and Biden administrations on behalf of more than 12,000 lottery winners — including Davarani — who suffered the consequences of the presidents’ policies.
In response to the lawsuits, federal court judges have ordered the Biden administration to reserve approximately 17,000 more visas that could be issued to those selected in 2020 and 2021 and their family members. But Biden’s team has filed a Notice to Appeal in multiple cases. It is not yet clear which parts of the orders the administration is hoping to overturn.
“We’re trying to do something that Congress has already indicated it wants to do,” said Curtis Morrison, the head of the law firm. “And then you have an administration that is actively fighting
against it. Even Trump’s attorneys were not fighting it as hard as the Biden attorneys.”
Even if the government is not able to challenge the federal court orders, not all affected lottery winners will have access to the additional visas. Rather, they will have to go through another random selection process, and it will take months or longer before individuals can find out what their futures hold, Curtis said.
“People have quit their jobs, sold their homes, put their relationships on hold because they think there’s this possibility that their cases can eventually move forward,” he said. “Now we have this huge swath of immigrant categories that are in limbo.”
Davarani knows the diversity visa rejection letter by heart.
A part of his old job as the owner of a computer services store was to help people register for the program. In May 2019 — when the new lottery results were posted — customers came in and out of his store in Ahvaz to check the status of their cases. But all of them left disappointed, Davarani said.
Davarani had always wanted to start a new life in another country where he could live more freely, he said. That year, he tried his luck at the lottery for the first time, not thinking he had a
chance. He said he was shocked when he logged into his own account and saw that he was selected.
After the initial excitement, however, reality set in for him. Davarani knew of Trump’s travel bans, which could prevent him from getting his visa processed before the deadline. And he was right.
His case has been stuck in administrative processing ever since he attended his first consular interview in Ankara, Turkey, that December. (There is no U.S. consulate in Iran.) Almost a year later, Davarani received notice that another interview would take place in Yerevan, Armenia, in September 2020.
The price of flights skyrocketed during the pandemic. Davarani said he paid thousands of dollars to travel to Yerevan only to have his meeting canceled the day before the scheduled interview due to a COVID-19 case found in the consulate. He was never granted a new interview, he said.
“After losing my business and losing my chance to come to America, it is getting harder and harder to get back up from these setbacks,” Davarani said. “If I do not get a visa, I truly don’t know what my options will be.”
Sistani has experienced firsthand how a diversity visa can transform someone’s life.
Arriving in America with less than
$400 in his pocket, the Iranian man spent his first six months in Columbus working at a rug store on the North Side, making $8 an hour. To save money, he ate nothing but eggs and bread during his first couple of weeks, he said.
It was difficult to build a new life in another country with no support and limited English skills, Sistani said.
But determined to take advantage of the opportunities that America has to offer, Sistani worked as electrical surveyor at a local company before exploring a new job as an insurance salesman.
Currently in the midst of another career transition, he’s become an Uber driver to support himself. In his free time, he also coaches table tennis, dabbles in cryptocurrency and teaches himself podcasting skills in hopes of launching his own programs.
“Despite all the challenges, I’m grateful because America is a country where I can do whatever I want to do,” Sistani said.
After learning of his friend’s plight, Sistani helped Davarani get in touch with the team at Morrison Urena. Davarani was among the 115 plaintiffs in the 2020 Fonjong v Trump lawsuit filed by the law firm.
While a federal judge has ordered the government to hand out 9,095 more visas to that year’s winners through another lottery, the Biden administration has until September 2022 to issue them. Before then, those like Davarani will not be able to find out whether they will personally benefit from the court order, Morrison said.
Sistani had previously helped his friend secure a job offer as a surveyor at a Columbus-based electrical company in anticipation of Davarani’s arrival. But now, Davarani, stuck in Iran, relies on his father’s financial assistance to get by.
“I believe in the values that America does,” Davarani said. “I want only to be able to better myself, my community and my new country through hard work and perseverance. I am ready to make a difference.”
Yilun Cheng is a Report for America corps member and covers immigration issues for the Dispatch. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at https://bit.ly/3fnsgaz. ycheng@dispatch.com @Chengyilun