Trump Suspends Green Card Lottery Programme Citing Brown University And MIT Shootings

US President Donald Trump ordered the immediate suspension of the Diversity Visa lottery program on Thursday, citing its connection to the suspect in the recent shootings at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the policy shift via the social platform X (formerly Twitter), stating that the pause was issued at the President’s direct instruction.

Under the new order, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will cease processing for the program indefinitely.

In her post on X, Noem wrote, "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 fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people. At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program," added the Homeland Security Secretary.

The White House has not yet indicated how long the suspension will remain in place or if the program will face a permanent legislative challenge.

The diversity visa programme makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are underrepresented in the United States, many of them in Africa.

Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.

Two people were killed and nine were wounded in the mass shooting Saturday at Brown University. The suspect was Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, who was found dead on Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, said at a news conference. Perez said as far as investigators know, the suspect acted alone.