Judge Weighs Reopening of 2027 Green Card Lottery - Newsweek

A federal judge is weighing whether the Trump administration can still be required to open the 2027 Diversity Visa lottery after the government argued that the legal deadline for running the program has already passed.

The dispute could determine whether the delayed green card lottery is revived or whether fiscal year 2027 passes without a new registration period.

U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta is considering a request from Red Eagle Law, L.C., a California immigration law firm that sued Secretary of State Rubio over the State Department's failure to open registration for the Diversity Visa Program for fiscal year 2027. Ohta has said she expects to announce a decision by October 14, either at a hearing or through a written order. The court has scheduled an oral ruling on the firm's motion for a preliminary injunction for 9:30 a.m. that day.

The Diversity Visa Program, commonly known as the green card lottery, makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available each year to people from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. Congress established the program through the Immigration Act of 1990. Federal regulations provide for an entry period of at least 30 days during which people can register for the program.

The State Department said in November 2025 that it was making changes to the DV entry process and would announce the start date for DV-2027 registration "as soon as practicable." It also said that the changes would not affect the period during which successful DV-2027 applicants could apply for visas, which it said would remain from October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027. Registration, however, did not open before fiscal year 2026 ended on September 30.

Red Eagle Law filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on August 19 and subsequently sought emergency relief requiring the government to begin the DV-2027 process. In its filing, the firm argues that the State Department has a mandatory obligation to administer the program and establish a registration period. It contends that failing to do so violates the Administrative Procedure Act and exceeds the secretary's lawful authority.

The firm points in part to federal regulations stating that the department "will establish" a period of no less than 30 days during each fiscal year for people to submit entries for visas available in the following fiscal year. The lawsuit also relies on the statutory language governing diversity visas, arguing that Congress's use of mandatory language means the executive branch cannot effectively decline to operate the program. Those arguments remain allegations by the plaintiff and have not been accepted by the court.

The government disputes that the court can provide the relief the firm is seeking now that fiscal year 2027 has begun.

At a September 24 hearing, Justice Department attorney Ian Pike told Ohta that compliance had become a "literal impossibility" under the applicable deadlines, according to Courthouse News Service.

The government argues that because the registration period must last 30 days and occur in the fiscal year before the visas are available, a registration period ending in fiscal year 2027 would correspond to visas for fiscal year 2028 rather than DV-2027.

Pike told the court that the State Department has a duty to operate the lottery under strict deadlines but argued that the court could no longer order the agency to complete a DV-2027 registration process within the statutory framework. He said such an order might have been possible earlier but "just can't happen now," according to Courthouse News Service.

Red Eagle Law rejects that interpretation. Attorney Curtis Morrison, the firm's owner and founder, argued that the administration should not be permitted to delay the program until the deadline passed and then rely on that deadline as the reason registration cannot proceed. He characterized the failure to open DV-2027 as a "de facto cancellation" and told the court that government attorneys had previously maintained that the administration was working toward opening the program.

The firm's original request for emergency relief also argued that it would suffer financial harm if DV-2027 were not implemented. In a declaration submitted with the motion, Morrison said a large percentage of the firm's clients have been Diversity Visa selectees and that those cases account for a significant proportion of its revenue. The government has challenged whether the firm has legal standing to bring the case, an issue Ohta indicated at the September hearing she was still considering.

Ohta signaled during the hearing that she had not settled on an answer. She said the case appeared more straightforward when she initially considered the firm's request for a temporary restraining order but that additional briefing had complicated the question. She also said she had become more skeptical of the government's position than she had been earlier in the litigation.

The judge pressed the government in particular over its earlier public statement that it intended to open DV-2027 registration.

A ruling for Red Eagle Law on its request for a preliminary injunction could require the administration to take steps toward operating DV-2027 despite the government's argument that the relevant deadline has expired.

Meanwhile, a ruling for the government could leave DV-2027 without a registration period, although immigration attorneys argue that such an outcome would constitute the first de facto cancellation in the program's history. However, this remains the plaintiff's characterization rather than a finding by the court.

Whatever the outcome, Ohta has acknowledged the significance of the impending decision because of the program's deadlines.

"It's this order that is going to bear the weight of this entire case, because of the time frames and what is at stake," she said at the September hearing, according to Courthouse News Service.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and Cristina Diciu.