Chicago – December 19, 2025
The United States has suspended its Diversity Visa (DV) program, known as the green card lottery, following a deadly shooting at Brown University linked to a participant in the scheme. President Donald Trump ordered the halt, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announcing the pause on X to prevent further harm from the “disastrous” initiative.
The incident occurred on December 13 at Brown University in Rhode Island, where gunman Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, killed two students, wounded nine others, and fatally shot an MIT professor. Valente, who entered the US via the DV program in 2017 and obtained a green card, was found dead from a self-inflicted wound.
Noem directed US Citizenship and Immigration Services to immediately stop DV1 processing, amid the Trump administration’s broader push to restrict legal immigration after security incidents. Critics decry the move as collective punishment, noting rigorous vetting for lottery winners. The program typically awards up to 50,000 green cards annually to underrepresented nations.
