To enter the 2018 lottery, you must come from a country that sent fewer than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the previous five years. For this reason, nationals of Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Pakistan and more than a dozen other countries are ineligible. Further, only those with a high school diploma or sufficient work experience qualify.

Polls bolster the case for immigration enforcement. A 2008 Gallup survey of residents in 82 countries revealed that 26% of the world’s population wanted to move permanently to another country. Rolling surveys conducted by Gallup of 452,199 adults in 151 countries between 2009 and 2011 estimated that 640 million people wanted to emigrate, with the U.S. being the desired destination for 150 million. A 2014 Pew Research study found that 34% of Mexico’s 120 million people would like to move to the U.S.

These polls reflect aspirations based on present realities, including the potential hardship and expense of migrating illegally. Imagine how many more would come if doing so were safe, legal and easy.

If the U.S. loosened visa restrictions or expanded the sanctuary-city concept to the national level, particularly with no similar moves from any of the world’s other rich nations, we’d see the largest mass movement in human history. It would be an epic economic and environmental catastrophe. And yet in the current political climate, it’s hard to find anyone outside the Trump wing of the Republican Party willing to articulate the need for enforcement.