The U.S. has suspended its Diversity Visa Lottery program following a mass shooting at Brown University, after authorities identified the suspect as a beneficiary of the scheme. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the immediate pause, stating it was done under President Donald Trump’s direction. The suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, entered the country through the DV1 program in 2017 and was later granted permanent residency.
Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, is believed to have killed two people at Brown University on December 13. He was also linked to the fatal shooting of an MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro, two days later. A multi-state manhunt ended when Valente was found dead in New Hampshire from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Secretary Noem directly linked the suspect’s immigration path to the program’s suspension. She wrote, “The Brown University shooter…entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.” She cited a previous attack to justify the move.
Noem referenced the 2017 New York City truck attack, writing, “In 2017, President Trump fought to end this programme, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program.” She stated the pause was to “ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous programme.”
The random lottery program allocates up to 50,000 immigrant visas annually to individuals from countries with low U.S. immigration rates. President Trump has long criticized the program as a security risk, having previously sought its abolition during his first term.
The shooting at Brown University left two students dead and nine others injured. The victims were identified as Ella Cook, 19, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18. Authorities have not disclosed a motive for the attacks. Valente was a former PhD student at Brown but had no current affiliation with the university.