President Donald Trump on Thursday suspended the green card lottery program that allowed the suspect Brown University And WITH filming will come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on social media platform X that, at Trump's direction, she is ordering USCIS to suspend the program.
“This disgusting man should never have been allowed into our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is a suspect in the shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and nine others wounded, as well as in the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday night from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had been attending Brown on a student visa since 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. He was granted an immigrant visa in 2017 and received lawful permanent resident status a few months later, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking time off from school in 2001 and receiving his visa in 2017.
The Diversity Visa Program provides up to 50,000 green cards each year through a lottery to people from countries that are underrepresented in the United States, many of which are in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move will almost certainly raise legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected, including spouses of winners. Once they win, they must pass a background check to be allowed to enter the United States. Portuguese citizens won a total of 38 slots.
Lottery winners are encouraged to apply for a green card. They are interviewed by consulates and are subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem's announcement is the latest example of tragedy being used to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, the Trump administration imposed strict rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other countries.
By continuing mass deportations, Trump sought to limit or eliminate opportunities for legal immigration. He's ok with them being enshrined in law, such as the visa lottery or the Constitution, like the right to citizenship for anyone born on US soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
