BREAKING: Trump Officially Suspends US Green Card Lottery

• US President Donald Trump has ordered a suspension of the Diversity Visa (green card) lottery program after the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings, a Portuguese national, entered the US through the lottery.

United States President Donald Trump has suspended the green card lottery program, known as the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery, following the deadly shootings at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the directive on the social platform X, stating that, under Trump’s instruction, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is pausing the program. “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said.

The suspect, 48-year-old Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente, was implicated in the shootings that killed two students at Brown University, wounded nine others, and led to the death of an MIT professor. Authorities reported that Valente died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Thursday evening.

According to US authorities, Valente obtained legal permanent residence status in 2017 through the diversity visa lottery, which allows up to 50,000 green cards annually to people from countries underrepresented in the United States, many of them from Africa.

Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 lottery, with over 131,000 selected when including spouses of winners. Portuguese citizens were allocated 38 slots.

The lottery, created by Congress, requires applicants to undergo interviews and vetting similar to other green card applicants. Trump has long criticised the program, and the latest suspension is expected to trigger legal challenges.

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This move follows growing concern over gun violence in the US involving foreign nationals, including a fatal attack in November by an Afghan immigrant targeting National Guard members, which previously prompted stricter immigration measures for certain countries.

The suspension raises questions about the future of the green card lottery for Nigerians and other Africans who often participate in the program. Many observers expect renewed debate over balancing national security with immigration opportunities.