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Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced late Thursday that the Trump administration will suspend the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, known as the “visa lottery,” after officials confirmed that the suspect in the Brown University mass shooting and the killing of an MIT professor entered the United States through that system.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem wrote on X. “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 identified the suspect as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national who received a green card through the diversity visa lottery in 2017.
Federal authorities say Valente killed two students and wounded nine others at Brown University on Dec. 13 before allegedly shooting and killing MIT professor Nuno Loureiro two days later in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Valente was found dead by suicide Thursday night in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, ending a multi-state manhunt. “This tragedy underscores the national security risks of random immigration lotteries,” Noem said.
The Diversity Visa Program, created by Congress in 1990, issues up to 50,000 immigrant visas each year through a random lottery to individuals from countries with low immigration rates to the U.S. Applicants must have a high school education or qualifying work experience and undergo background checks before receiving green cards.
President Trump has long criticized the program, calling it a “national security disaster” that allows people to enter the country “without regard for merit.”
His administration sought to end the lottery after an Uzbek national who entered through it carried out a 2017 truck-ramming attack in New York City that killed eight people.
Noem said Thursday that Trump’s earlier warnings had been vindicated. “President Trump tried to end this program years ago,” she said. “He was right then, and he’s right now.”
It remains unclear whether Noem can unilaterally pause the program, since most diversity visas are administered by the State Department rather than the Department of Homeland Security.
A small number are handled by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for applicants already inside the country. A DHS official said the department is reviewing “all active diversity visa adjudications” and that the pause will remain in effect “until further notice.”
According to a police affidavit, Valente first came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2000 to study at Brown University but withdrew in 2003. Brown President Christina Paxson confirmed Thursday that Valente “was enrolled for one semester in 2000–2001.”
In Portugal, Valente studied physics at the Instituto Superior Técnico, where officials confirmed he overlapped with Loureiro, who later became a professor at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. “My understanding is that they did know each other,” said Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
Authorities say Valente opened fire in the Barus & Holley engineering building at Brown during a final exam review session. Witnesses told police he entered from the back of Tanner Auditorium and began shooting toward the front of the room. Two students were killed and nine others injured. Police later discovered numerous 9mm shell casings inside the lecture hall.
Two days later, MIT Professor Loureiro was found dead in his suburban Boston home. Federal investigators believe Valente targeted him deliberately.
The case has reignited national debate over the diversity visa program, with critics arguing that random immigration draws create unnecessary risks.
Noem concluded her announcement by signaling broader reform ahead: “We are going to put American safety and common sense first. That starts with ending a system that lets dangerous individuals slip through the cracks.”
