U.S. authorities have decided to halt the green card lottery after it was revealed that a suspect involved in a shooting at Brown University had entered the country through this immigration pathway. The decision was announced by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who stated that the move was ordered by President Donald Trump.

In a post on the social platform X, Noem said she had instructed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to immediately suspend the Diversity Visa (DV) program, describing it as a policy that poses risks to public safety.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the alleged perpetrator — 48-year-old Portuguese national Claudio Nevis Valente — arrived in the United States in 2017 after winning the immigration lottery.

The shooting took place on the evening of December 13 in Providence, Rhode Island. Local police reported that two people were killed and nine others were injured.

A green card, officially known as the United States Permanent Resident Card, serves as proof of an individual’s right to permanently reside and work legally in the U.S. One of the ways to obtain it is through a government-run lottery system introduced in the 1990s to diversify immigration by attracting applicants from underrepresented countries.