green card lotteryNow, Agbobli and thousands of others who thought they were winners hope lightning will strike twice Friday, when federal officials in Washington announce the results of a new drawing for the program, which attracts millions of applicants worldwide and each year provides about 50,000 immigrants a legal route to permanent residency in the United States.The would-be winners had filed a class-action requesting that a federal court reinstate their selection and block the new drawing. But on Thursday afternoon U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied the injunction and dismissed the case. Jackson sided with the State Department in her finding that the May lottery did not select the applicants in a “strictly random order” as required by law.
A mistake in the computer coding had caused most of the original winners to be selected from among those who applied in the first two days of the 30-day application period, denying the remaining applicants an equal shot. The court decision dashed the hopes of 22,000 people around the world, many of whom had spent sleepless nights hoping the original results would be honored. To comply with requirements that the selection be random, they were returned to this year’s pool of 15 million applicants.“It is a big blow for my plans,” said Agbobli, now unemployed and back in Togo. “I don’t know how I will survive.”
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