Trump suspends USA green card lottery program that allow University shootings suspect into US

Los Angeles/Dec 19, 2025
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem  said, President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.

“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.

• Suspect, Neves Valente, 48, shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said. He was from Portuguese citizens, won only 38 slots.
• Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
• Visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
• This year , about 20 million people applied visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners.

The Green Card Lottery, officially called the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) Program, is a U.S. government program that allows people from certain countries to apply for permanent residency in the United States.

In simple terms:
It is a random lottery system that gives selected applicants a chance to get a U.S. Green Card.

Key Points:

• Each year, about 50,000 green cards are issued through the lottery.

• It is meant to promote diversity by allowing immigration from countries with low immigration rates to the U.S.

• Applicants must meet basic education or work requirements (such as a high school education or equivalent work experience).

• Selection is done randomly by computer, not based on money or sponsorship.

• Winners can live and work permanently in the U.S. and later apply for U.S. citizenship.

Important to Know:

• Entering the lottery is free through the official U.S. government website.

• Winning the lottery does not automatically guarantee a green card; applicants must pass background, security, and medical checks.

• The program is commonly referred to as the “Green Card Lottery” or “DV Lottery.”