President Donald Trump has ordered the suspension of the United States diversity visa lottery programme, commonly known as the green card lottery, following a deadly mass shooting at Brown University last week that claimed two lives.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the decision, stating that the visa scheme had been paused under the president’s directive to prevent further loss of life. According to her, the move is aimed at ensuring “no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous programme.”
Authorities revealed that the suspect, a 48-year-old Portuguese national identified as Claudio Neves Valente, entered the United States in 2017 through the diversity immigrant visa programme (DV1) and was subsequently granted permanent residency. Valente was found dead on Thursday.
US officials also said they believe Valente was responsible for the killing of Portuguese-born Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro earlier in the week, before the Brown University shooting.
The diversity visa lottery programme allocates up to 50,000 immigrant visas annually through a random selection process. It is designed to promote immigration from countries with historically low rates of migration to the United States.
In a post on social media, Noem recalled that Trump had previously pushed to abolish the programme in 2017 following a deadly truck-ramming attack in New York City that killed eight people.
That attack was carried out by Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbekistan national and Islamic State supporter, who later received multiple life sentences. According to Noem, Saipov also entered the US through the diversity visa lottery scheme.
The latest suspension is expected to reignite debate over the future of the programme, which has long faced criticism from Trump and his allies on national security grounds.
