The Trump administration said on Thursday it will suspend the green card lottery program after authorities linked a suspected mass shooter to the immigration pathway that allowed him to enter and settle in the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the suspect, identified as Claudio Neves Valente, entered the country through the diversity visa immigrant program in 2017 and was later granted permanent resident status. Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, is accused of carrying out a shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and nine others wounded, followed by the killing of a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology days later.
In a social media post, Noem said Neves Valente “should never have been allowed in our country” and described the case as evidence of failures within the diversity visa system. Acting at President Donald Trump’s direction, she said US Citizenship and Immigration Services had been ordered to immediately pause the program to prevent similar incidents.
The diversity visa lottery issues up to 55,000 green cards each year to applicants from countries with historically low levels of immigration to the United States, according to the State Department. The program has long been criticised by Trump, who renewed calls to abolish it during his first term following a deadly truck attack in New York in 2017.
Noem referenced that earlier attack in her remarks, saying Trump had sought to dismantle the lottery after an extremist entered the country through the same program and killed eight people.
Federal prosecutor Leah Foley said Neves Valente had studied at Brown University for years on a student visa before eventually securing permanent residency. She added that he had previously attended the same academic program in Portugal as MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, who was later found shot dead in his home in Brookline, outside Boston.
Authorities have not identified a motive for the attacks, which sent shockwaves through the elite New England campuses. After a multi-day manhunt that stretched across several states, police found Neves Valente dead inside a storage facility in New Hampshire. Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said the suspect died by suicide and is believed to have acted alone. Two firearms were recovered at the scene.
The victims at Brown University were identified as Ella Cook, a vice president of the campus Republican Party group, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a student originally from Uzbekistan who aspired to become a neurosurgeon. University officials said six injured students remained hospitalised in stable condition, while three others had been discharged.
The investigation gained momentum after authorities traced financial records and reviewed surveillance footage from both crime scenes. Brown University has faced scrutiny over campus security after it emerged that its extensive camera network was not connected to local police systems.
The attacks come amid persistent concerns over gun violence in the United States. The Gun Violence Archive reports more than 300 mass shootings nationwide so far this year.
