Chuck Schumer is a verbal escape artist, but when it comes to Sayfullo Saipov’s entry into the United States, the New York senator is trapped. The Diversity Visa Lottery program that brought Saipov to America was created by Chuck Schumer, no matter what his pals in the media want you to believe.

After President Trump made sure Americans knew who was responsible for the program, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake jumped in to help Schumer escape from his legislative record. But Flake’s defense of Schumer deserves particular scrutiny.

Flake argued that the Gang of 8 amnesty bill that Schumer and Flake pushed through the Senate in 2013 would have eliminated the diversity lottery. Fair enough. But that’s like saying the solution to eliminating tax loopholes is to institute a 60 percent flat tax. Flake and Schumer’s immigration amnesty plan, the one the media now uses to defend Schumer, would have allowed many millions more immigrants into the country and legalized millions already here.

Who needs a Diversity Visa Lottery when every foreigner is a winner?

Schumer and Flake were simply proposing an immigration free-for-all that would make Chuck’s Lottery obsolete. The Gang of 8 bill would have done overnight what the Diversity Visa Lottery visa lottery couldn’t do in a lifetime. Sayfullo Saipov could have had a dozen Uzbek buddies move to Paterson to hang with him at the Omar Mosque.

Chuck’s Diversity Lottery is impossible to defend. It is a random drawing with almost no criteria to win besides sheer luck. It doesn’t even require a high school diploma if the alien can claim two years of relevant work experience. And proving work experience? Employers in Uzbekistan and Somalia aren’t known for keeping credible records.

It’s true that those who win Chuck’s Lottery are subject to a criminal background check, but it’s a meaningless one. The countries that benefit from Chuck’s Lottery don’t have reliable criminal data.

When foreigners win Chuck’s Lottery, they get a green card, a direct path to citizenship … and an extra play: they can sponsor their relatives back home in Mogadishu or Bukhara.

Chuck’s Lottery was built on the familiar “diversity” lie. Diversity is not a problem with immigration today, and hasn’t been since the 1960s. Further, who cares? How did the Diversity Police that roam American college campuses and corporate offices get stationed at our borders? Diversity and immigration shouldn’t be used in the same sentence in any law passed by Congress.

Family-based chain migration is the key driver of legal immigration today, and this already provides plenty of diversity. Refugees and asylum-seekers further season the diversity pot.

The reliable media flacks who love Chuck and his Lottery want us to believe that hardly any immigrants win legal status in the United States today. But the truth is that America legalizes over one million foreigners per year.

Over a million, year after year after year. And that doesn’t even include any new amnesty for “Dreamers,” or anyone else.

Republicans have called for eliminating Chuck’s Lottery for many years, but Democrats simply refuse to allow any legislation that curbs immigration to pass — even when designed to protect national security or to deport criminal aliens.

We see the same political dynamic in federal courtrooms: President Trump tries to stop threats from entering the United States, then the Left and leftist judges strike down those efforts.

Congress can help solve the problem. Step One is to immediately end Chuck’s Lottery as part of any immigration bill that passes Congress. This should be a starting point for the type of immigration reforms President Trump has proposed to make America safer from terrorists, gangs, and other criminals.

Senator Schumer brought us the Diversity Visa Lottery that brought us Sayfullo Saipov. Americans should pay attention to how he continues to defend it.

Of course, if Senator Schumer announced his opposition to the Diversity Lottery, a bipartisan bill would sail through Congress eliminating it. But he won’t. He doesn’t want his own program to end. He’s playing left-wing immigration politics with America’s safety, and America keeps paying the price.