On Thursday, President Donald Trump ordered the suspension of the diversity visa lottery program, which had permitted the individual accused in the Brown University and MIT shootings to enter the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on social media platform X that, following Trump's directive, she has instructed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to temporarily halt the program. "This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country," she stated regarding the suspect, Portuguese citizen Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is believed responsible for the shootings at Brown University that resulted in two student fatalities and nine injuries, as well as the death of an MIT professor. Authorities reported he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Thursday evening.
According to a Providence police affidavit, Neves Valente initially studied at Brown on a student visa starting in 2000. He received a diversity immigrant visa in 2017 and later obtained permanent residency. His activities between leaving the university in 2001 and securing the visa in 2017 remain unclear.
The diversity visa program allocates up to 50,000 green cards annually via lottery to individuals from underrepresented countries, primarily in Africa. Established by Congress, the suspension is expected to face legal opposition.
For the 2025 lottery, nearly 20 million applications were submitted, with over 131,000 selected including spouses. Winners must undergo screening before U.S. admission. Portuguese nationals secured only 38 slots.
Lottery recipients are eligible to apply for green cards, undergoing consular interviews and standard vetting procedures.
Trump has consistently opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem's action represents another instance of leveraging tragic events to push immigration policy changes. Following a fatal attack by an Afghan gunman on National Guard members in November, Trump's administration implemented broad restrictions on immigration from Afghanistan and other nations.
While advocating for mass deportations, Trump has also worked to curtail legal immigration pathways. He has challenged established laws, such as the diversity visa lottery, and constitutional provisions like birthright citizenship, with the Supreme Court recently agreeing to review his birthright citizenship challenge.
