Trump suspends Green Card lottery program 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that, at the president’s direction, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would pause the program, commonly known as the Green Card lottery. In a post on X, Noem said the suspect “should never have been allowed in our country.”

The suspect, identified as Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente, 48, is accused of killing two students at Brown University, wounding nine others, and fatally shooting an MIT professor. Authorities said Neves Valente was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

According to a Providence police affidavit, Neves Valente first entered the United States on a student visa in 2000 to study at Brown. After taking a leave of absence in 2001, his whereabouts for more than a decade remain unclear. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and later obtained lawful permanent resident status.

The diversity visa program, created by Congress, allocates up to 50,000 Green Cards annually to applicants from countries with historically low levels of U.S. immigration. Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 lottery, with about 131,000 selected, including family members. Portuguese citizens received 38 slots.

Because the program is established by law, Trump’s move is widely expected to face legal challenges. The suspension aligns with Trump’s long-standing opposition to the lottery and broader efforts to restrict both legal and illegal immigration.