Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Mark Levin slammed the Diversity Immigrant Visa (green card lottery) program in an interview with Sean Hannity on FOX News Tuesday night. He said a lottery is no way to run an immigration system. Levin said a caller, a counter-intelligence veteran, told him al Qaeda and ISIS are "actively" using the program to install sleeper cells in the U.S



"It took effect in 1995," Levin said of the bill. "People go online and they apply. They apply online. It's a lottery system. That is no way to run immigration system. I had a caller on my radio program tonight and he said, he used to work counter intelligence. Al Qaeda and ISIS have actively been working to use this program to put sleepers in our country."



Levin said we have forgotten what the purpose of immigration is. Immigration is supposed to benefit the United States, not to ensure diversity from the foreigners coming into this country.











"Immigration is supposed to improve the United States it has nothing to do with improving other countries and so forth," he said.



"This mass killer has claimed an association with ISIS, hasn't he? This diversity visa program should be gutted. We don't need a diversity visa program with 50,000 people a year come into this country through a lottery system, because we want diversity from different countries," Levin declared.



Levin said after 9/11, you would have thought people would take the issue of immigration more seriously.



"Immigration is about national security," the broadcaster said. "Once people get into the country it becomes far more complicated. So you want to stop them at the border. And when the President of the United States said, as he did when he first came into office, we can't vet these people. Some of these governments are effective war with us and some of them don't exist. Some of them are involved in civil war. You know, we can't call Yemen and say, hey, can you check this guy out on your computer system? There is no computer system. There is no effective government. What the President is saying is... you can't bring people in from these countries until we figure out what's going on."



Transcript, via FOX News:





HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." Joining us now on this breaking news night with full reactions to the news is the author of the number one best seller rediscovering Americanism and the tyranny of progressivism. A rare appearance is hard to grab this guy out of his bunker, radio talk show host I call him "The Great One," Mark Levin. Mark great to see you, I truly honestly in my heart of hearts wish we didn't have to talk about this again. The President is right about vetting. If you come from these countries with these really sick ideologies and oppression of innocent people. What about people that are here that we never vetted? You can't even vet people that aren't here without being called racist and Islamophobic. Don't we need to do a better job of understanding those that may have bought in to this sick, twisted ideology?



MARK LEVIN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Yes. There is no question about it but what's very interesting about this mass killer he came here in 2010. He was 22 years old. He wasn't a 4-year-old who came across the border with his mother. He came here, he was 22 years old. He came here under a program called diversity visa program. I started digging into this. Do you know what that is, Sean? A lottery program. It's been existence for some time. 50,000 people a year come in here through the diversity visa program. Because the diversity visa program was set up to make sure that under represented countries can send their people into this country, too. And he did that in 2010. The program started before 1990, but in 1990 is when the current program was put into law under the immigration act. Do you know who the sponsor was? Chuck Schumer, the senior Senator of New York.



HANNITY: Good grief.



LEVIN: It took effect in 1995. People go online and they apply. They apply online. It's a lottery system. That is no way to run immigration system. I had a caller on my radio program tonight and he said, he used to work counter intelligence. Al Qaeda and ISIS have actively been working to use this program to put sleepers in our country. This mass killer has claimed an association with ISIS, hasn't he? This diversity visa program should be gutted. We don't need a diversity visa program with 50,000 people a year come into this country through a lottery system, because we want diversity from different countries.



And we seem to forget the purpose of immigration historically. The purpose of immigration is to improve the United States. To benefit the United States. Not to ensure diversity from the foreigners coming into this country. Not to ensure that certain countries are well represented or even certain refugees are coming here from wherever they are coming from. Immigration is supposed to improve the United States it has nothing to do with improving other countries and so forth. Also, one of your guests said something I agree with 100 percent. You know Barack Obama pull our FBI agents and other people out of these mosques. We need physical individuals, FBI agents, whomever they are, to monitor certain situations. Pew did a study a couple years ago and I have it in my book plunder and deceit.



Pew, not me, Pew did a study. They surveyed American Muslims throughout the country. Over 80 percent of them said not enough is being done by the leadership in their own community in the United States to tap down the violent rhetoric and so forth. 5 percent said of people who are here. 5 percent said violence is acceptable. Now, the vast majority say no. And we keep saying the vast majority say no. But when are we going to have an honest discussion about this? We have discussions about race every other day. We have discussions about everything every day. But this issue is taboo. Because people don't want to destroy their careers or we're told that you're a bigot if you bring, we are not a bigot if we bring it up. We are not condemning Muslims. We are condemning people who promote violence. When they yell what they yell after they attack people, they've confessed. They have self-identified as to who they are. So, in many respects it is an immigration issue.



HANNITY: You know, Mark, it seems so basic. It seems so fundamental. It's what we call simple common sense. And that is that, ok, in the light, in light of the death, the destruction, the stated intent to kill innocent men, women, and children, in the name of this fanatical radical Islamic ideology, to me, is basic common sense.



That you, if you want the honor of getting in to this country. One, you should do it legally. Two, we just need to know that you're not going to want to kill us. And similarly, we probably have let many people in that do have extreme ideologies. Now, you're a constitutional authority. How do you do this, thread the needle between the uses of intelligence, vetting people, protecting the fourth amendment, their constitutional rights. And also protecting the American people? It's a harder question than it seems on the surface.



LEVIN: It's a harder question, because you do have due process rights in some respects, depending on the status of the individual. Ok? The other problem is 40 percent of the federal judiciary is filled with Obama appointees. So when the President of the United States does something that is perfectly rational.



HANNITY: And they go Judge shopping.



LEVIN: They are finding Judges in Honolulu and Baltimore and Seattle who are Obama Judges. How many Reagan Judges and Bush Judges have been involved in any of these immigration issues?



HANNITY: None.



LEVIN: Very, very few. And what they are doing is, the courts have nationalized the immigration issue where the President's hands are tied. These are absurd. These are the same leftist who used to cheer FDR and claim he is the greatest President in American history. FDR was rounding up Japanese Americans and Japanese dissent and they love FDR.



Donald Trump is following the constitution, following the statute, trying to protect America. I mean, we even have a federal Judge who talks about due process rights for aliens before they even come to the United States to determine whether they should be here. This is progressivism gone nuts and it's going to kill a lot more people. You would have thought after 9/11 that people would take this issue of immigration seriously.



Immigration is about national security. And you are exactly right. Once people get into the country it becomes far more complicated. So you want to stop them at the border. And when the President of the United States said, as he did when he first came into office, we can't vet these people. Some of these governments are effective war with us and some of them don't exist. Some of them are involved in civil war. You know, we can't call Yemen and say, hey, can you check this guy out on your computer system? There is no computer system. There is no effective government. What the President is saying is these countries.



HANNITY: Well we can't take the risk too.



LEVIN: You can't bring people in from these countries until we figure out what's going on.