Trump Suspends Green Card Lottery After Brown Campus Shootings/ Newslooks/ WASHINGTON/ J. Mansour/ Morning Edition/ President Donald Trump has suspended the U.S. diversity visa lottery program after it was revealed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings entered the country through it. The move follows growing scrutiny over immigration policy. Legal challenges are expected as the program was created by Congress.
Green Card Lottery Suspension + Quick Looks
- Trump halts diversity visa lottery after Brown and MIT shootings
- Shooter Claudio Neves Valente entered U.S. via the lottery in 2017
- Valente, a Portuguese national, had also studied at Brown in 2000
- He was suspected in shootings that left three dead, nine injured
- Found dead by suicide in New Hampshire storage unit
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the suspension
- Nearly 20 million applied for the 2025 green card lottery
- Legal challenges expected as program was established by Congress
- Trump has previously sought to curb both legal and illegal immigration
Trump Suspends Green Card Lottery After Brown Campus Shootings
Deep Look
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday the suspension of the U.S. Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, commonly known as the green card lottery, citing national security concerns after it was discovered that the suspect in recent fatal shootings at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had entered the country through the program.
The suspect, 48-year-old Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Salem, New Hampshire, shortly after being identified in connection with the killings. He was suspected of fatally shooting two students and injuring nine others at Brown University, followed by the murder of an MIT professor two days later.
According to federal officials, Valente initially came to the United States on a student visa in 2000 to study at Brown. After taking a leave of absence from the university in 2001, he largely disappeared from the record until resurfacing in 2017 when he won a diversity immigrant visa and subsequently obtained legal permanent residency.
In response, Trump ordered Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to suspend the lottery program. Noem shared the directive via a post on social platform X (formerly Twitter), stating, “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.”
The Diversity Visa (DV) Program was established by Congress to diversify immigration to the United States by offering up to 50,000 green cards annually to individuals from countries with historically low levels of immigration to the U.S. Winners are selected through a lottery system and must pass rigorous vetting before being granted entry.
In 2025, nearly 20 million people applied to the lottery, and over 131,000 were selected including spouses of the primary winners. Portuguese citizens were awarded just 38 slots. Valente was among them.
The DV Program has long been in the crosshairs of Trump’s immigration agenda. He has consistently argued that the system is a national security risk and has attempted to either eliminate or heavily restrict it throughout his time in office. The latest move underscores the administration’s ongoing efforts to reduce both legal and illegal immigration, even when those policies are grounded in congressional authority or constitutional protections.
The decision to suspend the DV lottery is likely to provoke legal pushback. Because the program was created by legislation, critics argue that the executive branch lacks unilateral authority to eliminate it. Immigration advocates and civil rights groups are already preparing to challenge the move in federal court.
This is not the first time Trump has used a violent incident involving a foreign national to push forward immigration restrictions. Following a deadly attack on National Guard members in November, attributed to an Afghan migrant, the administration imposed sweeping immigration bans on Afghanistan and other countries deemed high-risk.
Critics have accused the administration of using tragedy as a policy vehicle, undermining legal immigration pathways and disproportionately targeting migrants from specific regions.
Trump’s broader immigration agenda has also taken aim at birthright citizenship, guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a legal challenge backed by the Trump administration that questions whether children born to non-citizens on U.S. soil should be automatically granted citizenship.
As the fallout from the Brown and MIT shootings continues to spread, Trump’s response adds another flashpoint to the already heated debate over immigration policy in the United States.
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