Paul Nehlen, Paul Ryan’s primary opponent, accuses him of playing ‘Russian roulette’ on immigration

A primary challenger to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan is hitting him from the right on immigration, blaming the Wisconsin Republican for supporting a lottery program that he says has made the nation more susceptible to terrorist attacks.

Paul Nehlen, who Mr. Ryan soundly defeated last year, is airing a new television ad that likens Mr. Ryan’s prior support of Diversity Visa Lottery — the way the suspect in the New York terrorist attacked entered the United States — to playing “Russian roulette” with public safety.

“Russian roulette. That’s the diversity lottery game Congress has funded for 27 years,” a narrator says in the ad that features pictures of gun-toting Muslims spinning around a roulette wheel. “Inviting an invasion of Muslim jihadists shooting up our cities and towns. But Russian roulette isn’t always played with a gun. It can be played with a truck or a bomb.”

“Don’t gamble with your vote,” the narrator says. “It’s time to stop Paul Ryan’s Russian roulette diversity refugee lottery.”

The diversity lottery for immigrants has received additional scrutiny in the wake of the attack last month in New York City, where suspect Sayfullo Saipov plowed a truck through a bike path, killing eight people.

President Trump said the lottery should be eliminated after learning that Mr. Saipov came to the U.S. from Uzbekistan as part of the program in 2010.

Mr. Ryan defeated Mr. Nehlen by a whopping 68 percent in the 2016 GOP primary in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District. Mr. Nehlen announced in June that he was taking a second stab at the seat in 2018.