Trump Halts Diversity Green Card Lottery After Brown, MIT Shootings Trace To Non-Citizen
President Trump ordered the suspension of the U.S. green card diversity lottery after federal investigators said the suspect in the Brown University shooting and the killing of an MIT nuclear scientist was a non-citizen who entered the country through the program.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in an X post late Thursday that, at Trump's direction, she had ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) program.
"At President Trump's direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program," Noem said.
She continued, "The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente 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."
"In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people," Noem noted.
The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente 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.
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) December 19, 2025
In 2017, President Trump…
Court documents show Neves Valente, a Portuguese national, first entered the U.S. on a student visa to attend Brown University in 2000. After leaving the school, his whereabouts were unclear until 2017, when he received a DV and later permanent residency.
Neves Valente was found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility late Thursday, Providence Chief of Police Oscar Perez told reporters at a press conference.
The U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts released a complaint affidavit on X regarding Neves Valente that detailed his immigration status and connected him as the suspect in the MIT shooting of the nuclear scientist.
🚨 NEW 🚨 U.S. Attorney releases photo and complaint affidavit for suspect in Brown University and MIT professor shootings, Claudio Neves-Valente.
— U.S. Attorney Massachusetts (@DMAnews1) December 19, 2025
READ CHARGING DOCUMENT HERE: https://t.co/YHYcatbj8Z pic.twitter.com/EsM14iGuXs
The diversity visa program permits up to 50,000 green cards per year through a random lottery. Prioritizing randomness over skills appears to be a national security threat - time for reforms.
Why did this Brown shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, kill Ella Cook, my College Republicans VP, Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a freshman foreign student, and Nuno Loureiro, a MIT professor working on cutting edge nuclear tech? None of this makes sense. When will we get a motive? pic.twitter.com/TdwCRCIchR
— William Branson Donahue (@realwilldonahue) December 19, 2025
There is still no official motive from authorities, nor any confirmation on whether either shooting was targeted. Israeli news outlets have suggested the shootings could have been part of an overseas plot.