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A Visa Lottery Winner a Decade Ago, a U.S. Soldier Returns Home to Lithuania

Spec. Lukas Natkevicius during a training exercise this month near Kazlu Ruda, Lithuania. He became a naturalized American citizen in high school.Credit...Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times

KAZLU RUDA TRAINING AREA, Lithuania — A decade ago, Lukas Natkevicius and his family here in Lithuania won the lottery. Now he is back in this tiny Baltic nation — as a United States Army soldier helping to defend his former homeland.

When he was 13 years old, the United States selected Specialist Natkevicius’s father for one of the up to 50,000 visas issued annually to people who have no family connections or employer sponsor. Often referred to as the green card lottery, the diversity immigrant visa program for decades has benefited immigrants from countries with low immigration rates to the United States.

But President Trump proposed eliminating the program last fall after a truck attack in New York City left eight people dead. Sayfullo Saipov, the man accused of carrying out the attack, came to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010 through the lottery.

Specialist Natkevicius’s personal story, however, offers a counterpoint to critics who say people in the program arrive with no established attachment to the country and do not deserve the opportunity.

He and his family initially moved to Florida, but his father got a better job in Byram Township, N.J. During high school, Specialist Natkevicius became a naturalized American citizen. After graduating, he worked as a sales clerk in Cocoa Beach, Fla., but felt he was drifting.

That’s when a friend suggested he enlist in the Army. After a few weeks, Specialist Natkevicius was on his way to Fort Benning, Ga., for basic training. Next up was Fort Drum, N.Y., but at the last minute, the Army sent him to Germany instead (“because I spoke Lithuanian”) to join a regiment of Stryker infantry fighting vehicles.

Three years on, Specialist Natkevicius is a reconnaissance scout for the Stryker unit that is part of a two-week training exercise in Poland and Lithuania, joining some 18,000 allied troops along NATO’s eastern flank to deter potential Russian aggression. “He’s a pretty good soldier,” said Sgt. Roman Fiffie, 26, of West Columbia, Tex., his scout leader.

After visiting with relatives on his return here, Specialist Natkevicius, who turns 25 this month, said he got a hard look at what his life might have been like had fate not intervened.

“The lottery is an amazing program that changed my life completely,” Specialist Natkevicius said in an interview here at this former Soviet air base, cradling his M-4 rifle, his faced smeared with green camouflage paint.

As a soldier, Specialist Natkevicius said it was not his place to weigh in on the nation’s heated immigration debate, adding only, “All I know is that I got lucky.”

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