Trump Suspends Green Card Lottery After Brown, MIT Shooter Entered U.S. Through Diversity Visa Program
Image: Zeteo | Substack

Trump Suspends Green Card Lottery After Brown, MIT Shooter Entered U.S. Through Diversity Visa Program

18 December, 2025.USA.97 sources

Key Takeaways

  • President Trump ordered Homeland Security to pause the diversity visa (green card lottery) program
  • Authorities identified suspect Claudio Neves Valente as a Portuguese national admitted through the diversity visa
  • Police issued an arrest warrant and launched a manhunt, probing links to MIT professor's killing

Green card lottery pause

President Donald Trump ordered an immediate pause of the U.S. Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) lottery, commonly called the green card lottery.

Investigators tied deadly shootings at Brown University and an MIT professor's death to a suspect who entered the United States through the program.

Image from ABC News
ABC NewsABC News

Multiple outlets report that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she was directed to instruct U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to suspend the program.

Noem publicly declared that the suspect "should never have been allowed in our country."

The move is described as an administration-initiated security review of screening, vetting, and post-entry monitoring tied to the DV program.

Campus shooting investigations

The shootings that prompted the suspension involved two separate scenes that national and local law enforcement have investigated closely.

Authorities say a shooter attacked students inside Brown University's Barus & Holley engineering building, killing two students and wounding nine.

Image from ABC News
ABC NewsABC News

The FBI released surveillance images and offered a reward for information.

In a related development, MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro was shot and later died.

Prosecutors and police issued a warrant tied to the Brown attack while investigators examined whether the incidents were connected.

Reactions to DV Lottery Suspension

Reactions split along predictable lines, with security-focused and conservative outlets hailing the pause as necessary to safeguard Americans.

Loureiro, 47, an MIT professor of nuclear science and engineering, was shot at his home in Brookline, near Boston, on Monday night and died Tuesday

AP NewsAP News

Civil‑liberties and legal observers cautioned that pausing a statutorily authorized program invites court fights and politicizes immigration policy.

Coverage also emphasized President Trump’s long-standing criticism of the DV lottery.

Officials and commentators pointed to the suspect’s immigration pathway as the basis for immediate action, even as legal scholars warned the suspension conflicts with a program created by Congress.

Investigation and community reaction

Some outlets reported that authorities identified the suspect as Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.

They later reported he was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a New Hampshire storage facility.

Image from Associated Press
Associated PressAssociated Press

Local outlets chronicled community grief, campus security measures and candlelight vigils.

Other reporting noted that federal agents initially said there was no confirmed link between the Brown and Brookline incidents, even as investigators released images, issued warrants and offered rewards to gather tips.

More on USA