President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered an immediate halt to the diversity visa lottery, a program officials say allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to legally enter the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the move on X, saying she was directing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the lottery at the president’s instruction.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem said, referring to Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Authorities have identified Neves Valente, 48, as the suspect in a series of attacks that left two Brown University students dead, injured nine others, and resulted in the killing of an MIT professor. Officials said he was found dead later Thursday.
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Court records show Neves Valente first arrived in the United States on a student visa to attend Brown University in 2000. According to an affidavit from a Providence police detective, he left the school in 2001 and later resurfaced in the immigration system. In 2017, he was granted a diversity immigrant visa and subsequently obtained lawful permanent resident status. Investigators have not clarified where he lived during the years between leaving Brown and receiving the visa.
The diversity visa program, created by Congress, distributes up to 50,000 green cards each year through a random lottery. It is aimed at applicants from countries that historically send fewer immigrants to the United States, including many in Africa. Because it is written into law, the decision to suspend it is expected to face swift legal challenges.
For the 2025 lottery, nearly 20 million people reportedly submitted applications worldwide. More than 131,000 individuals were selected when spouses were included, though selection does not guarantee entry. Winners must still pass extensive background checks and interviews before receiving permission to immigrate. Portuguese citizens accounted for just 38 of the selected slots.
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Those chosen in the lottery are invited to apply formally for permanent residence and are vetted under the same standards as other green card applicants through U.S. consulates abroad.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the diversity visa system, arguing it undermines national security. Noem’s announcement fits a broader pattern of the administration tying immigration restrictions to violent incidents. After an Afghan national was accused of killing National Guard members in November, the administration imposed massive limits on immigration from Afghanistan and several other countries.
As Trump pushes an aggressive deportation agenda, he has also moved to narrow or dismantle legal pathways to immigration. His efforts have extended to policies established by Congress, such as the diversity visa lottery, and even to constitutional principles. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship, a long-standing guarantee for people born on U.S. soil.
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