The United States has suspended its green card diversity lottery program following a deadly shooting at Brown University, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Thursday.
Noem said the suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, entered the country through the diversity visa lottery in 2017 and later obtained permanent residency. Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, allegedly opened fire inside a Brown University building on December 13, killing two students and injuring nine others as they sat for exams.
Authorities have also accused him of killing a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) two days later. Police said Valente died by suicide after a multi-day manhunt.
In a post on social media, Noem said she ordered US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to immediately pause the diversity visa program at the direction of President Donald Trump. She described the scheme as dangerous and said it put American lives at risk.
The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.
In 2017, President Trump…
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) December 19, 2025“This individual should never have been allowed into our country,” Noem wrote, adding that the suspension would remain in place while officials review the program’s safeguards.
The diversity visa lottery, commonly known as the green card lottery, issues up to 55,000 permanent resident visas each year. The State Department says the program aims to promote immigration from countries with historically low rates of migration to the United States. Applicants must meet education or work requirements and undergo background checks and interviews.
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The suspension comes as the Trump administration intensifies its immigration enforcement agenda. According to a report by The New York Times, USCIS has instructed field offices to identify 100 to 200 denaturalisation cases per month in the 2026 fiscal year, signalling a broader push to revoke citizenship from some naturalised Americans.
Since returning to the office, President Trump has tightened immigration rules, imposed new travel restrictions, and moved to limit pathways to legal residency. His administration has also paused green card and citizenship applications for immigrants from 19 non-European countries.
*Additional news input sourced from Reuters
