Trump suspends green-card lottery amid Brown University and MIT shootings

President Donald Trump ordered the immediate suspension of the diversity immigrant visa lottery, the program commonly known as the green-card lottery, after authorities identified the suspect in shootings at Brown University and MIT.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on X that, at the president's direction, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services would pause the program. She described the suspect as someone who should never have been allowed in the country.

Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national, is suspected in the Brown University shootings that killed two students and wounded nine others, and in the fatal shooting of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said. Neves Valente studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, and in 2017 was issued a diversity immigrant visa and, months later, obtained legal permanent residence.

It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from Brown in 2001 and obtaining the visa in 2017. The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards each year by lottery for people from countries underrepresented in the United States, with many from Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges. Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots. Lottery winners are required to undergo vetting to win admission.

Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery, and Noem’s action aligns with a broader push to narrow or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. The administration has pursued policy changes even in the wake of tragedies, including new rules after an Afghan national was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Trump’s challenge to birthright citizenship, underscoring the high-stakes politics surrounding immigration.

These developments signal ongoing tensions in U.S. politics as the country approaches elections.