U.S. Suspends Green Card Lottery After Deadly Brown University Shooting

By Brian Kiprono - Reporter

U.S., 19 December 2025 - The United States has abruptly suspended its long-running green card lottery programme following a deadly campus shooting that has reignited debate over immigration and public safety.

President Donald Trump ordered the immediate pause of the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) programme after a gun attack at Brown University in Rhode Island left two undergraduate students dead and several others injured.

The directive was confirmed on Thursday by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said the decision was taken “to ensure no more Americans are harmed”.

The shooting occurred on December 13, when a gunman opened fire inside a classroom before moving across parts of the campus. A university professor was also killed in the attack, while nine other people were wounded. Authorities later found the suspect dead from what investigators believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police identified the attacker as Claudio Neves Valente, a Portuguese national who first entered the United States on a student visa in 2000 and later obtained permanent residency in 2017. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Valente received his green card through the diversity visa lottery, a point the administration has repeatedly highlighted.

“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately instructing USCIS to pause the DV programme,” Noem said, adding that the president has long viewed the lottery as incompatible with America’s immigration priorities. “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she wrote on social media.

Ethiopia Tightens Banking Rules: Digital ID Link Now Mandatory

Somalia Denies Secret Agreements with Sweden

The diversity visa programme, created by Congress in 1990, makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year to applicants from countries with low levels of immigration to the United States. Many beneficiaries come from Africa, including Kenya, where the lottery has offered a rare pathway to study, work and settle in the US.

Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 lottery, with more than 131,000 selected worldwide, including spouses and dependants. Despite the random selection, winners are required to undergo rigorous security screening, interviews and background checks before receiving a visa.

Critics argue that the administration is using tragedy to advance a long-standing political goal of dismantling the programme. Trump previously sought to end the lottery after the 2017 New York truck attack, carried out by an immigrant who had also entered through the scheme.

For thousands of hopeful applicants across the world, the sudden suspension has brought uncertainty and disappointment, as Washington weighs immigration reform against the urgent demand for public safety.