Trump Takes Major Decision on DV Lottery

President Donald Trump has suspended the Diversity Visa (DV), or Green Card Lottery, program following revelations that a suspect involved in shootings at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had entered the United States through the scheme.

On Thursday (18 December), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on social media platform X that, following Trump’s directive, she had instructed US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to temporarily suspend the Green Card Lottery program.

Noem said, “This vile individual should never have been allowed to enter our country.”

Forty-eight-year-old Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente is suspected of carrying out the shooting at Brown University, in which two students were killed and nine others injured. He is also accused of killing an MIT professor.

Local authorities said Valente was found dead from a gunshot wound, believed to be self-inflicted, on Thursday evening.

Massachusetts Attorney Leah B. Foley said Valente obtained legal permanent resident status in the United States in 2017.

Under the Diversity Visa Lottery program, up to 50,000 people are granted permanent residency in the United States each year. The program is designed primarily for citizens of countries with historically low levels of immigration to the US.

However, many observers believe the decision to suspend the congressionally mandated program will face legal challenges.

Around 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery. Including spouses, more than 131,000 applicants were selected. Lottery winners must undergo strict security screening before entering the United States. Portuguese nationals received only 38 visas this year.

Lottery winners do not receive green cards automatically; instead, they are invited to apply, attend consular interviews, and undergo the same vetting process as other green card applicants.

Notably, President Trump has long opposed the Diversity Visa Lottery program.