President Donald Trump has ordered an immediate suspension of the US diversity visa lottery programme, a move directly linked to the suspect in the recent Brown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) shootings.
Executive Action Follows Campus Tragedy
The order was issued on Thursday, 19 December 2025. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the suspension via social media, stating she was acting at the President's direction. She instructed US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to pause the programme.
Secretary Noem explicitly connected the decision to the alleged gunman, Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national. "This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country," she wrote. Valente, who was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Thursday evening, is suspected of killing two students and wounding nine others at Brown University, and murdering a professor at MIT.
How the Suspect Entered the United States
According to US attorney for Massachusetts, Leah B. Foley, Valente obtained his legal permanent resident status – commonly known as a green card – in 2017. He secured this status through the diversity immigrant visa programme. This Congressionally-created scheme allocates up to 50,000 green cards annually via a lottery system. It targets applicants from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.
The programme is immensely popular, with nearly 20 million applications submitted for the 2025 lottery. Only about 131,000 individuals, including spouses of primary winners, are selected. Winners are then invited to apply for a green card and must undergo rigorous interviews and vetting processes identical to other applicants. In the most recent data, citizens of Portugal won just 38 of the coveted slots.
Broader Immigration Policy Shift and Legal Challenges
This suspension represents the latest instance where the Trump administration has used a tragic event to advance its immigration policy objectives. Following a fatal attack on National Guard members by an Afghan gunman in November, the administration imposed sweeping restrictions on immigration from Afghanistan and other nations.
President Trump has long been a vocal opponent of the diversity visa lottery. His administration's broader strategy has focused not only on mass deportation efforts but also on curtailing pathways to legal immigration. This approach has extended to challenging policies enshrined in law, such as this lottery, and even constitutional principles like birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court has recently agreed to hear the administration's challenge to birthright citizenship.
Legal experts anticipate that the unilateral suspension of the congressionally-mandated diversity visa programme will almost certainly face swift and significant legal challenges in the courts.
