Trump Suspends Green Card Lottery Following Brown & MIT Shootings
The trump governance has paused the diversity visa programme – a lottery awarding up to 50,000 green cards annually – following revelations that the suspect in the recent shootings at Brown University and MIT entered the U.S. through the program. The move, announced Thursday, is highly likely to face notable legal challenges and underscores a long-standing opposition to the lottery system.
The decision came after homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated on the social platform X, at President Trump’s direction, she is ordering United states Citizenship and Immigration Services to halt the program. “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said, referring to Claudio Neves Valente, the 48-year-old Portuguese national suspected of the shootings.
Valente is accused of killing two students and wounding nine others at Brown University, as well as fatally shooting an MIT professor. Authorities confirmed he died Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to an affidavit from a Providence police detective, Valente initially came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2000, studying at Brown University. He later obtained a diversity immigrant visa in 2017, leading to legal permanent residency. The period between his departure from Brown in 2001 and receiving the visa in 2017 remains unclear.
The diversity visa program, established by congress, aims to provide opportunities for individuals from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States, with a significant number of recipients originating from African nations. Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with over 131,000 selected, including spouses. Applicants undergo a vetting process after initial selection. Notably, only 38 slots were allocated to citizens of Portugal.
Lottery winners are then invited to apply for a green card, undergoing interviews at consulates and facing the same scrutiny
as other applicants seeking permanent residency.
This suspension is not an isolated incident. A senior official noted that the administration has consistently sought to leverage tragic events to advance its immigration policy objectives. Following a fatal attack on National Guard members in November involving an Afghan national, the Trump administration implemented stricter immigration rules for Afghanistan and other countries.
The broader context reveals a consistent pattern: while advocating for mass deportation, President Trump has actively worked to restrict both legal and illegal immigration pathways. This includes challenging established laws, such as the diversity visa lottery, and even constitutional principles, like birthright citizenship, with the Supreme Court recently agreeing to hear his challenge on the latter.
The suspension of the diversity visa program represents the latest escalation in this ongoing effort to reshape U.S.immigration policy, raising questions about its legality and long-term impact.
Hear’s a substantive news report answering the “Why, Who, What, and How” questions:
Why: The Trump administration suspended the Diversity Visa Program following shootings at Brown University and MIT allegedly committed by Claudio neves Valente, a Portuguese national who entered the U.S. through the program. The administration argues the program poses a security risk.
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