US Congressman Keith Self has introduced legislation to abolish the Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery, which offers a pathway to permanent residency for applicants from countries with historically low levels of immigration to the United States.
The proposal comes amid a legal dispute over the Trump administration’s suspension of the program and a court order requiring immigration authorities to resume processing certain applications. Self criticized the court’s intervention and argued that immigration policy should be determined by elected officials rather than judges. The ruling in Medani et al. v. Trump et al. temporarily set aside policies that had halted diversity visa processing and directed the State Department and US Citizenship and Immigration Services to take reasonable steps to resume adjudication of eligible pending cases. The court order did not abolish the program.
Self, a Republican representing Texas’s 3rd Congressional District, announced the move in a press release dated October 22. In August 2026, a federal judge in California ordered the government to resume processing certain affected applications. The State Department subsequently said the December 2025 pause was no longer in effect following the ruling, while also announcing a further pause on diversity visa issuances as it reviewed screening procedures.
