WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the suspension of the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, citing the discovery that the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings entered the United States through the lottery-based system.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the move on social media, saying U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was directed to pause the program immediately. The administration identified the suspect as Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, a Portuguese national and former Brown graduate student who later obtained legal permanent residency through the diversity visa lottery. Neves-Valente is accused of killing two Brown students, wounding nine others, and fatally shooting an MIT physicist before taking his own life in a New Hampshire storage facility.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, created by Congress under the Immigration Act of 1990, randomly awards up to 50,000 green cards annually to applicants from countries with historically low U.S. immigration rates. Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 lottery, with just over 131,000 selected, including spouses. Portuguese citizens received only 38 slots in recent draws. Winners undergo the same background checks and consular vetting as other green card applicants.
Trump has long criticized the program, and the suspension follows a broader effort to tighten immigration, including expanded detention capacity and proposals to sharply increase visa application fees. While the administration framed the move as a public safety measure, legal experts expect immediate court challenges, noting the program was established by statute and that isolated crimes do not reflect the broader immigrant population.
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