The Trump administration is suspending the green card lottery program indefinitely after it was revealed that the suspect in the Brown University shooting and the killing of an MIT professor used the legal pathway to enter the United States. “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a social media post on Thursday. Noem said the alleged shooter, Portuguese national Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, entered the United States through the diversity immigrant visa program in 2017 and was granted a green card. President Donald Trump was in office for the majority of that year. State Department Spokesperson Tommy Pigott declined to provide additional specifics about the suspect’s visa timeline and whether the vetting process happened during Trump’s first term. Asked if he’s aware of any red flags that were missed during that process, Pigott said, “Part of the reason why the pause is necessary is to determine, was there something that was missed? What was the vetting process?”The program makes up to 50,000 immigrant visas available annually, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Recipients are randomly selected through a lottery system and invited to apply for a green card. “The diversity lottery winners go through the same vetting as any other immigrant visa,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the CATO Institute. “I don’t think we should make any assumptions about this track being more prone to national security threats than any other.”As of Friday afternoon, Bier said the scope of the Trump administration’s suspension was not immediately clear. Secretary Noem directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program in her original announcement, but she didn’t address the State Department’s operations. Asked on Friday if the State Department had officially suspended the program, Pigott said, “We’re going through that process now, in terms of looking at it. If we have an official announcement to make, we’ll make that announcement.”Following that interview and after this story was initially published, a State Department spokesperson said in an email that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has indefinitely paused the issuance of diversity visas “until we can be sure we know exactly who we are letting into our country.”Trump has long been opposed to the green card lottery system. In his first term, he called on Congress to end it and took steps to scale it back. It remains to be seen if his administration will try to end the program in his second term. “I’m not going to preview actions in advance, but we do need to figure out what happened here,” Pigott said. Pigott also didn’t share a specific timeline for when the suspension may be lifted. DHS didn’t directly respond to emailed questions on the length of the pause. Bier said even a short-term pause could mean missed opportunities for thousands and would likely prompt legal challenges. He said lottery winners have to be processed and receive their visas before the end of the year.”It’s use it or lose it,” Bier said. “There’s no one else in the legal immigration system that then benefits from this decision. It’s just a cut to legal immigration with no corresponding increase to any other category or group.” The suspension is the latest example of the Trump administration restricting immigration following a tragedy. Additional restrictions were announced after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members last month.
The Trump administration is suspending the green card lottery program indefinitely after it was revealed that the suspect in the Brown University shooting and the killing of an MIT professor used the legal pathway to enter the United States.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a social media post on Thursday.
Noem said the alleged shooter, Portuguese national Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, entered the United States through the diversity immigrant visa program in 2017 and was granted a green card.
President Donald Trump was in office for the majority of that year. State Department Spokesperson Tommy Pigott declined to provide additional specifics about the suspect’s visa timeline and whether the vetting process happened during Trump’s first term.
Asked if he’s aware of any red flags that were missed during that process, Pigott said, “Part of the reason why the pause is necessary is to determine, was there something that was missed? What was the vetting process?”
The program makes up to 50,000 immigrant visas available annually, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Recipients are randomly selected through a lottery system and invited to apply for a green card.
“The diversity lottery winners go through the same vetting as any other immigrant visa,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the CATO Institute. “I don’t think we should make any assumptions about this track being more prone to national security threats than any other.”
As of Friday afternoon, Bier said the scope of the Trump administration’s suspension was not immediately clear. Secretary Noem directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program in her original announcement, but she didn’t address the State Department’s operations.
Asked on Friday if the State Department had officially suspended the program, Pigott said, “We’re going through that process now, in terms of looking at it. If we have an official announcement to make, we’ll make that announcement.”
Following that interview and after this story was initially published, a State Department spokesperson said in an email that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has indefinitely paused the issuance of diversity visas “until we can be sure we know exactly who we are letting into our country.”
Trump has long been opposed to the green card lottery system. In his first term, he called on Congress to end it and took steps to scale it back. It remains to be seen if his administration will try to end the program in his second term.
“I’m not going to preview actions in advance, but we do need to figure out what happened here,” Pigott said.
Pigott also didn’t share a specific timeline for when the suspension may be lifted. DHS didn’t directly respond to emailed questions on the length of the pause.
Bier said even a short-term pause could mean missed opportunities for thousands and would likely prompt legal challenges. He said lottery winners have to be processed and receive their visas before the end of the year.
“It’s use it or lose it,” Bier said. “There’s no one else in the legal immigration system that then benefits from this decision. It’s just a cut to legal immigration with no corresponding increase to any other category or group.”
The suspension is the latest example of the Trump administration restricting immigration following a tragedy. Additional restrictions were announced after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members last month.
