The Trump administration has suspended the diversity lottery immigrant visa program after it was revealed that the man who carried out the mass shooting at Brown University entered the country through the program.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the development in a post on X.
“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,” Noem wrote. “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.
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.
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…
Valente, a 48-year-old immigrant from Portugal, had previously attended the university. Investigators have not yet indicated his motive.
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From CNBC:
On Dec. 13, two students died and nine others were injured when someone opened fire at the physics building at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Police later identified Portuguese national Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, as the suspect.
Valente was a former student at the university and had been enrolled in a Ph.D program in physics in 2000, the university’s president, Christina H. Paxson, said. Valente is also suspected of having killed MIT physics professor Nuno Loureiro in his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, two days after the Brown shooting.
Valente was found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility on Thursday, Providence Chief of Police Oscar Perez said.
“There’s no longer a threat to the public,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston said in a statement after Valente’s death was confirmed.
Noem said that Valente entered the U.S. through the DV1 program in 2017 and was granted a green card.
“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,” she wrote on X.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV Program) allocates up to 50,000 immigrant visas every year, according to the USCIS website.
It’s astonishing the Diversity Visa Lottery still exists. Up to 55,000 Green Cards are handed out annually by random draw, with eligibility as low as a high school diploma or two years of work experience—standards that invite abuse. Congress should end it. pic.twitter.com/Ig01CvDdYa
— U.S. Tech Workers (@USTechWorkers) December 19, 2025
The green card lottery allows eligible individuals to submit a free electronic entry within a certain timeframe. A computer program randomly selects applicants for an immigrant visa who meet education or work-experience requirements and pass background checks.
Valente does not appear to have a prior criminal record. The authorities found the suspect dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire.
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