Donald Trump’s overheated rhetoric has made immigration a central issue of this election. There is now a vigorous debate over what to do with America’s roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants. Neither conservatives nor liberals, however, have paid much attention to the need for reforming legal immigration. The system features many outdated and arcane laws, one of which is Ted Kennedy’s brainchild, the green card lottery.

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, as it’s formally known, is one of those government schemes whose name belies its origins. Sen. Kennedy got it added to the Immigration Act of 1990 to help a group of people who had been coming to America for centuries: the Irish. The “transition period” of the program, from 1992-94, dedicated 40 percent of “diversity” visas to Irish immigrants. That’s no longer the case, but Northern Ireland is still treated as a separate state under the law—important because immigrants from the United Kingdom, to which it belongs, are not eligible for the program.