Green Card Lottery Program Halted Following High-Profile Shooting Incident
In a dramatic move, President Donald Trump has suspended the green card lottery program, a decision influenced by recent tragic events linked to a foreign national. This program, which enabled the suspect in shootings at Brown University and MIT to reside in the United States, is now under scrutiny.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced via the social platform X that, following President Trump’s directive, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is temporarily halting the program. She stated emphatically, “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” in reference to the suspect, Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, a Portuguese national, was implicated in the shootings at Brown University, which resulted in the deaths of two students and injuries to nine others, as well as the killing of an MIT professor. Authorities discovered his body on Thursday evening, with reports indicating a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The background of Neves Valente reveals that he initially arrived in the U.S. on a student visa in 2000 to study at Brown University. However, after taking a leave of absence in 2001, his whereabouts remain unclear until he received a diversity immigrant visa in 2017, subsequently achieving legal permanent residency.
The diversity visa lottery annually distributes up to 50,000 green cards to individuals from countries with low U.S. immigration representation. This initiative, established by Congress, now faces potential legal challenges due to its suspension.
In the 2025 lottery, nearly 20 million applicants vied for the opportunity, with over 131,000 selected, counting spouses. Portuguese nationals secured just 38 slots. Winners undergo a thorough vetting process, including interviews at U.S. consulates, similar to other green-card applicants.
President Trump has been a long-time critic of the diversity visa program. The suspension aligns with his administration’s broader immigration policy agenda, which often utilizes incidents like this to justify stricter immigration controls. Following a November attack by an Afghan national on National Guard members, the administration introduced stringent immigration rules for Afghanistan and other countries.
In addition to curbing illegal immigration, the Trump administration seeks to restrict channels for legal immigration, even those protected by law or the Constitution, as seen with the ongoing challenge to birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court is set to hear this case, which could have significant implications for immigration policy.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
This article was originally written by www.npr.org
