Washington, DC – US President Donald Trump announced the suspension of the US Green Card Lottery Program, officially known as the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. This came after it was revealed that the suspect in the recent shooting at Brown University, as well as the murder of a nuclear scientist at the University of Massachusetts, had obtained US permanent residency through this program.
In a statement released on Friday, December 18, via the X platform, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noam said she had asked the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to immediately suspend the program.
U.S. authorities identified the shooter as Claudio Manuel Noss Valenti, a 48-year-old Portuguese national and former student at Brown University. An official report stated that Valenti received his green card in 2017 through the lottery system.
The Secretary of Homeland Security wrote on his X account: “This criminal should never have been allowed into our country. We must ensure that no other American is harmed by this disastrous program.”
It is worth noting that President Trump had previously attempted to end the program following a deadly incident in New York in 2017. At that time, an ISIS member carried out a truck attack; the attacker had also entered the United States through the green card lottery. That attack resulted in the deaths of eight people.
The suspension of the program comes as part of government efforts to secure the borders. These efforts also aim to review immigration procedures following a series of incidents that raised concerns about the entry of individuals through the lottery system who could pose a threat to national security.
