President Donald Trump has ordered an immediate suspension of the United States’ diversity visa (DV) lottery programme, citing national security concerns following a series of deadly shootings linked to a former beneficiary of the scheme.
The decision was announced on Thursday by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said she directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to pause the programme at the president’s instruction after authorities confirmed that the suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, entered the United States through the diversity visa system.
In a statement posted on X, Noem said Neves-Valente obtained entry into the U.S. in 2017 under the DV1 category and was later granted lawful permanent resident status.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem wrote, adding that President Trump had previously sought to end the programme following the 2017 New York City truck-ramming attack carried out by an ISIS-inspired terrorist who also entered the U.S. through the diversity visa system. “At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 programme to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous programme.”
Law enforcement officials confirmed that Neves-Valente, 48, was responsible for a shooting at Brown University on December 13, during which two students were killed and nine others injured inside the Barus & Holley Engineering Building as students prepared for examinations.
Two days later, authorities say Neves-Valente fatally shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) physics professor Nuno Loureiro, 47, inside his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. Investigators revealed that both men were originally from Portugal and had studied physics at the same university in Lisbon, though the nature of their relationship remains under investigation.
Records indicate that Neves-Valente had previously studied physics at Brown University on a student visa around 2000, enrolling in a graduate programme for about one year before taking a leave of absence in 2001. Officials said it remains unclear where he lived or what he did in the years between leaving Brown and obtaining his green card in 2017, aside from his most recent residence in Miami.
The manhunt for Neves-Valente ended Thursday evening when he was found dead inside a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. Authorities said he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The diversity visa programme allocates up to 50,000 green cards annually to applicants from countries with historically low levels of immigration to the United States. For the 2025 lottery, nearly 20 million people applied worldwide, with approximately 131,000 individuals selected, including family members. Portuguese nationals received just 38 slots. Applicants selected through the programme are required to undergo background checks and consular interviews similar to other immigrant visa categories.
President Trump has long criticised the lottery system, arguing that it undermines national security and prioritises random selection over merit-based immigration. The suspension of the programme following the Brown University and MIT shootings underscores his administration’s broader push to tighten U.S. immigration policies amid renewed concerns over public safety and border control.
