A Chicago-based immigration lawyer has said that US President Donald Trump cannot unilaterally scrap the diversity lottery programme.
Mr Trump has said that he would end the popular US green card lottery after a radicalised Uzbek man who entered the country under the programme killed eight people in New York.
"I am starting the process of terminating the diversity lottery programme," Mr Trump told reporters.
"We have to do what's right to protect our citizens. We will get rid of this lottery programme as soon as possible."
The 1990 programme awards US permanent resident visas to around 50,000 applicants from around the world each year, opening the door as well for members of their broader families to follow them in so-called chain migration.
According to Mr Trump, Sayfullo Saipov, who drove a rented truck into cyclists and pedestrians on a New York City bike path yesterday, came to the country via the programme.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, immigration lawyer Fiona McEntee said the move would need congressional support.
Ms McEntee said there were deficits in the US immigration system that were leaving qualified people ineligible for visas, but she said changes to these visas should not be at the detriment of family-based sponsorship.
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She said the family-based sponsorship was not a "free-for-all" but limited to parents and siblings.
Ms McEntee said the diversity programme gave people an opportunity to come to the US and that people were there, for the most part, to make a better lives for themselves.
She said that her office was busier since Mr Trump had come to office and an executive order passed in February (buy American, hire American) was beginning to permeate through every visa category and have negative impacts.
