Trump Administration Pauses Diversity Visa Program Following Brown, MIT Shootings

The Trump administration is pausing the diversity visa program after the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings was found to have entered the country through the lottery-based system.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the pause on social media, calling the program "disastrous." The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year through a lottery system. Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including the spouses of winners.

The suspected shooter, 48-year-old Neves Valente, first came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2000 to study at Brown University. He was later issued a diversity immigrant visa in 2017. Valente was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He is suspected in the shootings at Brown that killed two students and wounded nine others, as well as the killing of an MIT professor.

The move follows a pattern from the administration of tightening immigration policy in response to high-profile attacks. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, the administration imposed sweeping restrictions on immigration from Afghanistan and several other countries.