Judge Orders State Department to Reopen Green Card Lottery

U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to reopen registration for the 2027 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program by November 1. The ruling follows a lawsuit filed in August by Red Eagle Law, a California-based immigration firm, which argued that the Trump administration's failure to launch the lottery violated federal law.

The court's preliminary injunction requires the State Department to announce the registration schedule by October 29 and open a 30-day electronic entry window by November 1. Selectees must be notified by December 3. The program provides a pathway to permanent residency for up to 55,000 eligible applicants from countries with historically low immigration rates to the United States.

The program was suspended in December 2025 following a shooting at Brown University. Government officials stated the suspect, a Portuguese national, had entered the U.S. via the lottery. While the government argued that statutory deadlines for the program had already passed, the court rejected this position to reinstate the process established by the Immigration Act of 1990.