A story of winning, then almost losing the immigration lottery
12 September 2020
Last year Fatma became one of the lucky few selected out of millions who apply for the diversity visa lottery — a program intended to bring in immigrants from underrepresented countries.
What's happening: Now, the 29-year-old Albanian with a master's degree, and experience in hospital administration, is one of thousands fighting a pandemic and the Trump administration for her chance to move her family to the U.S.
- Fatma had applied for a shot at a green card through the diversity visa lottery for over a decade before being selected.
- Coronavirus canceled her visa interview scheduled for May of this year. Then Trump's immigration bans threatened to keep her from receiving the visa at all.
"If you think of winning the lottery and then the next day somebody tells you that no, you can't go to collect," that is what it was like, her attorney told Axios.
What to watch:Last week a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to resume issuing diversity visas before the Sept. 30 deadline.
- Fatma's attorney said she has an interview next week. But even if she gets the visa, as long as Trump's proclamation is in effect, the State Department won't let her in.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.