President Trump has suspended U.S. Green Card Lottery following campus shootings.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that President Donald Trump has ordered the suspension of the U.S. green card lottery programme, a move confirmed on Wednesday by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Noem said the directive was issued at the president’s instruction, adding that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been told to pause the Diversity Visa (DV) programme with immediate effect.
The decision follows reports linking Claudio Neves Valente, a Portuguese national who entered the United States through the programme, to recent shootings near Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
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The attacks reportedly left two students and nine other individuals injured.
Valente first arrived in the United States in 2000 on a student visa and became a lawful permanent resident 17 years later. Authorities later confirmed that the 48-year-old was found dead.
Reacting to the development, Noem wrote on X that the suspect “should never have been allowed in our country.”
The Diversity Visa programme, also known as the green card lottery, makes about 50,000 immigrant visas available each year to applicants from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.
Further details on the duration and scope of the suspension have not yet been announced.
