The future of the Green Card Lottery

How the results of the Midterms impact the Lottery

On 6 November 2018, the traditional midterm elections took place in the USA, in which a third of the senators and the entire House of Representatives were elected. Many potential immigrants awaited these elections with enormous interest, but also with great concern. The results have a decisive impact on future immigration opportunities and could even have meant the end of the popular Green Card Lottery.

Here you can find the most important results of the midterms and how they affect the future of the lottery.

Results of the midterm elections

Many advocates of a regulated but still positive immigration policy hoped that the midterm elections would bring a "blue wave", i.e., a clear democratic leadership. This did not happen at first on the election night. However, it became clearer as the last votes were counted and more and more districts voted for the Democrats.

Donald Trump, who was counting on his Republicans to retain the lead, suffered a setback.

In the end, neither Republicans nor Democrats were able to score an overwhelming victory in these congressional elections. The democrats can be more satisfied with the results because they were able to get many state governor posts. This will probably favor their position for future elections in the respective states.

Although the Republicans retained the majority in the Senate, the Democrats were able to win the second chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives. This means that the two opposition parties have now each won a majority in one chamber.

The impact of the results on the government

The two chambers have different governmental responsibilities.

For example, the Senate can autonomously approve relevant personnel decisions. Since the Republicans still have the majority of seats here, they can assert their personnel interests easily. This also applies to the filling of cabinet posts and judges at various federal courts.

The Democrats, on the other hand, have the majority in the House of Representatives and therefore, a better position in the committees for secret services.

In other areas, such as government spending or legislation, the two chambers have equal rights and must work together. This also means that the Senate cannot pass a law without the prior consent of the House of Representatives.

The fact that both the political goals and the style of the two parties differ greatly from each other, has already been clearly demonstrated in the past. We will have to wait and see to what extent Trump will step up to the Democrats in the future. It is more likely that he will continue to pursue a confrontation course, which will put many legislative proposals on ice. He will probably blame the opposition for this.

The impact of the results on the Green Card Lottery

Especially the anti-immigration campaigns of the Republicans in the past two years, as well as clear statements by Trump on the termination of the lottery, have fueled great uncertainty and concern among USA fans.

Therefore, many potential immigrants were worrying about the results of the midterm elections.

Pro Green Card Lottery

Many Green Card Lottery proponents are relieved about the outcome of the midterm elections.

Democrats don't think much of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration sentiment. Political analysts even say that the newly elected House of Representatives is the most pro-immigration House in more than 100 years.

Despite the new majority in the House of Representatives, the Democrats cannot pass substantial immigration laws on their own, but they can fend off legislative changes by the current government.

Even if many had hoped for an even better result for the Democrats, it is still sufficient to prevent the Green Card Lottery from being abolished in the near future. For the Republicans it is now almost impossible to end the lottery in the near future.

Contra Green Card Lottery

Even if it doesn’t seem like there is a huge danger of abolishing the Green Card Lottery at the moment, its future is still not certain.

US presidents can also issue decrees on their own and even change laws to a certain extent. Trump has also bypassed the Congress in the past and implemented immigration policy decisions without the Congress. Here are a few examples:

• Travel ban for selected nationalities - the latest version of the ban has even been approved by the Supreme Court.
• Termination of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which protected undocumented immigrants who came to the USA as minors through deportation - this was rejected by federal judges in repeated instances so the Supreme Court will probably have to decide soon on the admissibility of this decree.
• Termination of TPS (Temporary Protected Status), under which 300,000 people whose home countries were affected by conflicts or natural disasters, were allowed to live safely in the USA.
• Ban on asylum applications outside official ports of entry

Therefore, you can never really be 100 % sure that Trump won’t find a way to fulfill his wish to end the Green Card Lottery during his time as a president.

Future of the Green Card Lottery

Trump is not the first and will certainly not be the last president who wants to fundamentally change American immigration policy and abolish the Green Card Lottery.

Even though the results of the midterm elections almost rule out an imminent end to the lottery, we will have to wait and see how often the US authorities will carry out the Green Card lottery.

If you missed the deadline for the upcoming Green Card Lottery, the DV-2027, you should register now for the following DV and secure your place early. After all, nobody knows exactly how long this chance will last.