Trump froze the Diversity Visa green card lottery after shootings at universities

Photo: The Federal

US President Donald Trump ordered an emergency suspension of the Diversity Visa green card lottery program. The decision is linked to the shootings at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The suspect obtained the right to permanent residence in the United States through this lottery in 2017, The Federal reports.

On December 13, an attack on the Brown University campus in Providence, Rhode Island, left two students dead and nine others injured, The Guardian reports. Two days later, an MIT professor was shot dead. Police suspected a 48-year-old Portuguese national of committing these crimes. On the evening of December 18, he was found dead in a storage facility he had rented. The cause of death was a gunshot wound. It is believed that he inflicted it on himself.

Cláudio Neves Valente studied physics at Brown University and had been in the United States on a student visa since 2000, but took an academic leave of absence in 2001. In 2017, he won the Diversity Visa lottery and a few months later obtained US permanent resident status. FBI special agent Ted Dox told reporters that the suspect had previously studied at the same university in Lisbon as the murdered MIT professor.

Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said that the Diversity Visa program in its current form is vulnerable from a security standpoint, as admission to the country is based on random selection rather than an individual risk assessment. In particular, she stated that the attacker “should never have been allowed into the country”.



Donald Trump has long opposed the lottery-based principle of granting immigration status, and the decision to suspend the program has become another example of using tragic events to tighten immigration policy. Earlier, in November, sweeping restrictions for Afghan nationals were imposed after a deadly attack on National Guard service members, AP News notes.



The Diversity Visa program has been in place since the 1990s and provides up to 50,000 immigrant visas each year to nationals of countries with low levels of immigration to the United States. Candidates are selected through a lottery, after which applicants undergo consular interviews and security screenings. The number of participants significantly exceeds the number of available visas. In the current draw, around 20 million people worldwide submitted applications, while more than 131,000 applicants were selected when family members are included. Only a portion of them ultimately obtain permanent resident status. In the case of Portugal, of which Cláudio Neves Valente was a national, just 38 visa slots were allocated in the latest cycle.

Donald Trump had already attempted to roll back the Diversity Visa program during his first presidential term. In particular, the issue of its cancellation was raised after a terrorist attack in New York in 2017, when it emerged that the perpetrator had entered the United States under the same scheme. However, the program was preserved at the time, as its existence is enshrined in law and requires congressional approval.



Analysts at International Investment believe that the decision to suspend the green card lottery is highly likely to lead to court challenges, similar to attempts to revise birthright citizenship. Donald Trump announced his intention to restrict this mechanism immediately after taking office in January 2025, but no corresponding legislative changes have yet followed.

At the same time, a resumption of the Diversity Visa program in the coming months appears unlikely, as consideration of the issue may be prolonged. The suspension of the lottery fits into the administration’s broader course of tightening immigration policy. Trump has previously stated his intention to deport up to 11 million foreign nationals. Such figures appear unrealistic, but some of the announced measures have already been implemented.