US President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on December 17, 2025. Photo by Doug MILLS / POOL / AFP
Washington: US President Donald Trump has ordered a temporary suspension of the Diversity Visa Program -- commonly known as the green card lottery -- a move that could face immediate legal challenges.
The diversity visa program, created by Congress, makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year through a lottery system for applicants from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States, many of them in Africa. Winners, their spouses, and dependents are eligible to apply for US permanent residence after undergoing standard consular vetting and interviews.
The suspension was directed by Trump and announced by US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said the program "allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the U.S."
In a post on the social platform X, Noem said she had instructed the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to pause the lottery, calling it a loophole that jeopardized national safety.
The action follows the deadly shootings at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Claudio Neves Valente, a Portuguese national, is suspected of killing two students and wounding nine others at Brown before fatally shooting an MIT professor.
Valente entered the United States on a student visa in 2000 and later became a permanent resident in 2017, according to Oscar Perez, police chief in Providence, Rhode Island. Valente was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
"This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country," Noem said of Valente, describing the suspected gunman as "a clear example' of the program's risks.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 diversity visa lottery, with more than 131,000 applicants selected, including spouses of primary entrants. Winners are invited to apply for a green card and are subject to stringent security and immigration vetting.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery, arguing that it undermines border security and admits immigrants without sufficient criteria. The suspension -- framed by administration officials as a public safety measure -- comes amid broader efforts to tighten US immigration policies. Critics say the decision exploits a tragic incident to advance hardline immigration goals, noting similar policy shifts after other high-profile crimes involving noncitizens.
