'Computer Error' Destroys Hopes and Dreams of 22,000 Visa-Seekers

Imagine getting the best news you could possibly receive. This news will fundamentally change your life. You and you family will all be affected. You are happy beyond belief as you tell your whole family, quit your job, even marry your girlfriend, to prepare for life together in the United States. Then, all of a sudden, something sweeps in and tells you 'never mind.' Everything you prepared for, everything you yearned for, is now gone, a victim of some “computer error” that no one is responsible for.

This is exactly what happened to the 22,000 “winners” of the U.S. State Department’s annual Diversity Lottery. The lottery, an annual selection of about 50,000 U.S. immigration visas chosen from a large pool of international applications from developing nations, apparently suffered a massive computer meltdown this year. According to State Department officials, the computer program used to determine the lottery winners erroneously selected from among the first few days of the application period, therefore nullifying any result.

Officials say the event was a mistake, and have apologized. However, the official State Department letter of regret arrived a full two weeks after many of the "winners" were given the good news. The State Department has since canceled and deleted the results, sparking a firestorm of protest that includes a petition on Change.org that attracted hundreds of signatures in its first week.

Among those affected by the government's decision, none are more upset with their fate than a number of same-sex binational couples who applied for and won immigration visas, against all odds. Because of provisions in the preposterously-named Defense of Marriage Act, a U.S. citizen with a foreign-born partner cannot sponsor that partner for legal residency. These provisions discriminate against same-sex couples who love each other just as much as any other couple in America, couples that are somehow unworthy of benefiting from immigration laws designed to keep other binational couples together.

Unfortunately, the Diversity Lottery is one of the few options left for these binational, same-sex couples. But now, the State Department has announced a new lottery scheduled for July, which effectively cheats 22,000 people out of a real shot at getting back what they already had: a chance for a better life in the United States.

Elise Foley reports on the controversy over at the Huffington Post, stating about the winners, "Several, like Gorgeski, left their jobs after reading on the Diversity Visa Lottery website they had been selected for green cards. The government advises that those selected to move forward begin quickly to make preparations to move to the United States, where they will need new homes and jobs."

One unlucky "winner" named Akaba Ajitum wrote to Change.org, "Put yourself in my shoes. Imagine the pain in the heart of someone in a country south of the Sahara, with very limited educational opportunities in the sciences, large scale corruption, favoritism, nepotism, the absence of democracy, poverty and agony, hunger and disease, and watching an opportunity to a better future passing you by."

Instead of holding an entirely separate lottery to determine a new set of winners, government officials should honor the commitment made to the 22,000 applicants who have faced an emotional roller coaster as a result of poor management and faulty computer programming. Those selected have done nothing wrong, and they deserve better than this. Worse still, the same-sex partners who are among those 22,000 are already routinely discriminated against by the U.S. immigration system and should not be made to pay extra for an irresponsible act of negligence.

As another "winner," Marianno Gorgeski, wrote, "My mind simply didn't want to accept this. I was repeatedly saying, 'This is the U.S., the U.S. does not do things like this. When the U.S. makes a promise it will live up to the promise.'" Tell the State Department to Give the First 22,000 Diversity Lottery Winners Their Green Cards, Then Fix Your Computer Error.

Photo credit: jon smith