If you did just one thing to start fixing our visa system, a good choice would be getting rid of the visa lottery. Now, both the Senate and the House have bills to do just that.

Since 1990, when liberals created the lottery, the United States has given away 55,000 permanent residency visas each year. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) and Rep. Robert Goodlatte (R.-Va.) have each proposed legislation that would do away with this needless visa program.

In the wake of the botched Christmas Day terror attack, members of Congress are worried that extremists could use the State Department's diversity visa lottery as a means of getting to the U.S.

The State Department is planning to welcome thousands of immigrants from terror-watch list countries into the United States this year through a "diversity visa" lottery -- a giant legal loophole some lawmakers say is a "serious national security threat" that has gone unchecked for years.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will designate Malta as a Visa Waiver Program (VWP) country on Dec. 30, 2009. Maltese nationals will be able to travel visa-free to the United States effective Dec. 30th.

"Congress is leaning toward a guest worker-type program as one means of addressing illegal immigration, 1st District Congressman John Sullivan said Friday at a Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce breakfast."

One of the proposals being looked at is a card for those who want to work here that would be good for, let's say, three to five years," Sullivan said. "There'd be some sort of biometric identification and a background check to make sure they're not a criminal. They'd be able to work here, and they'd also pay taxes...."

"Officials with Sun Valley Co. in central Idaho say they will hire fewer ski instructors and other workers from foreign countries this season because a nationwide visa program has reached its limit.

Matt Parke, Sun Valley Co. personnel manager, said the 66,000 national limit for H2-B visas was reached July 29, the earliest it has been met since the program started in 1990.

"It will definitely affect us," Parke told the Idaho Mountain Express. "We sometimes hire 200-plus H2-B employees, and with extensions we'll be about half that...."

"The nation's largest immigration law firm is under federal scrutiny over whether it helped major U.S. corporations disqualify American job applicants and give thousands of high-paying positions to immigrants.

The unprecedented Labor Department inquiry centers on Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy -- a New York firm at the forefront of a political effort to ease hiring of skilled foreign workers...."

America's visa program for temporary workers was originally set up to allow U.S. companies to bring skilled workers who are in short supply to the U.S... But a review of new information from the federal government suggests that the companies benefiting most from the temporary worker program aren't U.S. companies at all...

A Gallup poll released on August 5, 2009 shows that 50% of all Americans believe that immigration should be reduced.  This number is 11 points higher than the figure from an identical poll conducted last year.  Only 14% of Americans say immigration should be increased (down from 18%) and 32% say immigration levels should remain the same (down from 39%).