The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered an immediate pause to the controversial green card lottery program, citing its use by the suspect in a pair of deadly academic shootings. The move marks a significant escalation in the administration's efforts to restrict immigration pathways it deems risky.
Program Halted in Wake of Campus Violence
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the suspension of the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program in a post on social media platform X on December 19, 2025. The program, which randomly awards up to 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to applicants from countries with low U.S. immigration rates, has long been a target of immigration hardliners.
Noem directly linked the suspension to the investigation into Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the 48-year-old Portuguese national identified as the suspect in the Brown University shooting and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Authorities confirmed that Valente, a former Brown student, was granted lawful permanent residence through the green card lottery in 2017.
"This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country," Noem stated. She added that pausing the lottery would "ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program." Valente's body was discovered on Thursday, December 18, 2025, in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, following an apparent suicide.
A Pattern of Policy Responses to Violence
The suspension of the green card lottery represents the latest in a series of immigration restrictions enacted by the Trump administration following acts of violence. Officials have repeatedly framed these measures as necessary for national security.
This pattern includes:
- Earlier crackdowns on immigration from several developing nations after an Afghan national was suspected of shooting two National Guard soldiers in Washington.
- Proposed measures to add a $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas, which are heavily utilized by technology companies and skilled foreign workers.
- Consideration of extreme vetting procedures, such as reviewing years of social media history for tourists seeking entry to the United States.
The administration is simultaneously pursuing aggressive interior enforcement, activating border patrol agents in major cities like Chicago and Los Angeles as part of what Trump promised would be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. Plans are also advancing to dramatically expand immigration detention capacity using warehouse-style "mega centers" across the country.
Victims and Ongoing Investigations
The violence that precipitated this policy change claimed multiple lives. The MIT victim was identified as professor Nuno Loureiro. At Brown University, a makeshift memorial included a framed photo of victim Ella Cook, one of the individuals killed in the December 13th shooting in Providence, Rhode Island.
While the administration has directly connected the suspect's immigration pathway to the attacks, the suspension of the Diversity Visa Program is expected to face legal challenges and sharp criticism from immigration advocates. They argue the move unfairly punishes tens of thousands of prospective immigrants for the actions of one individual and undermines a longstanding channel for legal immigration.
The pause effectively halts a decades-old program created by Congress, setting the stage for a renewed political and legal battle over the future of U.S. immigration policy.
