Green card

The Diversity Immigrant Visa program, also known as the green card lottery, is a United States government lottery program for receiving an immigrant visa followed by a permanent resident card. The Immigration Act of 1990 established the current and permanent Diversity Visa (DV) program.

The lottery is administered by the Department of State and conducted under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). It provides up to 55,000 immigrant visas annually and aims to diversify the immigrant population in the United States, by selecting applicants from countries with low numbers of immigrants in the previous five years. More than 22 million people apply for the lottery each year, which means that fewer than 1 in 400 applicants receive visas.

United States nationality law details the conditions in which a person holds United States nationality. In the United States, nationality is typically obtained through provisions in the U.S. Constitution, various laws, and international agreements. Citizenship is established as a right under the Constitution, not as a privilege, for those born in the United States under its jurisdiction and those who have been "naturalized". While the words citizen and national are sometimes used interchangeably, national is a broader legal term, such that a person can be a national but not a citizen, while citizen is reserved to nationals who have the status of citizenship.

Individuals born in any of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia or almost any inhabited territory are United States citizens (and nationals) by birthright. The sole exception is American Samoa, where individuals are typically non-citizen U.S. nationals at birth. Additionally, individuals born from foreign diplomats working in the United States are neither citizens nor nationals. Foreign nationals living in any state or qualified territory may naturalize after going through the legal process of qualifying as permanent residents and meeting a residence requirement (normally five years).

Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term as president on January 20, 2025, with one of his key campaign promises being to crack down on illegal immigration. That evening, Trump signed several executive orders related to immigration, including declaring a national emergency at the Mexico–United States border, blocking asylum seekers from entering the U.S., ending the process of "catch and release" for illegal immigrants, ending birthright citizenship for new children born to parents who are not U.S. permanent residents, suspending almost all refugee admissions to the U.S., and officially designating certain international cartels and criminal organizations as terrorists. Trump signed the Laken Riley Act on January 29, 2025, which mandates the detention of immigrants who are charged with or convicted of certain crimes.

Trump oversaw a sharp decrease in illegal border crossings after taking office in 2025. During the first few months of Trump's second presidency, illegal border crossings fell to the lowest level in decades.

Turmus Ayya (Arabic: ترمسعيّا) is a Palestinian town located in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the West Bank, in Palestine. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), it had a population of 2,464 in 2017. An unusually high proportion of its residents are Palestinian bi-nationals with US citizenship: advocacy groups estimate that more than 80% of the village’s Palestinian residents hold US passports, while Israeli media have described Turmus Ayya as “90% American”. Since the late 20th century, many families from Turmus Ayya have emigrated to the United States and Latin America, made their fortunes in business and professional careers, and then sent remittances back to finance large, red-tiled villas, swimming pools, and wide, landscaped streets; journalists have compared parts of the town’s built environment to affluent Californian suburbs such as the Hollywood Hills and other entrepreneur-driven communities. Because so many households built their wealth through commerce and entrepreneurship abroad before returning to invest in housing, leisure facilities and local businesses, Turmus Ayya is often portrayed in regional media as a showcase of diaspora-funded prosperity and entrepreneurial success in the central West Bank. As a result, Turmus Ayyah is known as Entrepreneur Valley by West Bank residence Turmus Ayya is also home to the Hugo Chavez Ophthalmic Hospital, the largest ophthalmic hospital in the West Bank.

Turmus Ayya has been a target of Israeli settler violence. Notable incidents include: the killing of 14-year-old Palestinian-American Omar Rabea; the killing of 27-year old green card holder Omar Qattin; and a 21 June 2023 arson attack which burned down more than 30 homes and 60 cars.