US has suspended the issuance of green cards under the Diversity Visa (DV1) programme following a deadly shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island. The decision was confirmed by US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, according to The WP Times.
The move follows an attack in which two people were killed and nine students wounded on the university campus. US authorities later confirmed that the suspect, a 48-year-old Portuguese national identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, had entered the United States in 2017 through the Diversity Visa programme and subsequently obtained permanent resident status.
In an official statement, Noem said the suspension was imposed due to long-standing security concerns associated with the programme. She recalled that in 2017 President Donald Trump had already attempted to abolish the Diversity Visa scheme following a terrorist attack in New York, in which an assailant who had entered the United States through the same programme killed eight people.
“On the instruction of President Trump, I am ordering US Citizenship and Immigration Services to immediately suspend the DV-1 programme to ensure that this system does not pose a threat to the safety of Americans,” Noem said.
The Diversity Visa programme was introduced in the early 1990s to encourage immigration from countries with historically low migration levels to the United States. Each year, up to 50,000 visas are made available through a global lottery that attracts millions of applicants worldwide.
US officials stress that selection in the lottery does not guarantee the issuance of a visa. Applicants must meet education or work experience requirements, pass background and security checks, and complete an in-person interview before receiving a green card.
Brown University declared a state of emergency on 14 December after reports of an active shooter on campus. Law enforcement agencies later confirmed that the suspect had taken his own life after the attack.
The decision comes amid heightened scrutiny of violent incidents involving migrants in the United States. On 26 November, a separate shooting near the White House resulted in the deaths of two members of the US National Guard. The suspect in that case, an Afghan national who entered the US in 2021, was critically wounded and detained.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the suspension of the Diversity Visa programme will remain in force pending a broader review of immigration screening and security procedures.
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