Suspension of Vetting: Trump Orders Suspension of Diversity Visa Program After Brown University Tragedy

Key Points:

• President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have ordered an immediate pause of the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.
• The decision follows the identification of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a lottery recipient, as the suspect in a fatal shooting spree at Brown University and MIT.
• The administration is citing the program’s history of security vulnerabilities as a catalyst for a broader immigration system overhaul.

In a swift response to a violent incident that shook the Ivy League, the Trump administration has moved to dismantle one of the most debated pillars of the American immigration system. 

Late Thursday, December 18, 2025, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced via social media that at the President’s direction, she is ordering the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to pause the Diversity Visa Program.

The decision follows the identification of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a Portuguese national, as the primary suspect in a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor.

The suspension is an indication of a toughening of the White House towards initiatives that allocate residency to participants of a randomised program instead of particular economic or security requirements.

The “Lottery” Under Fire

The Diversity Visa Program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, has been harshly criticised over the years. It has been said to promote global representation but the current administration considers it a loophole.

In response, Noem issued an official order at the request of President Donald Trump, instructing USCIS to stop the DV1 program so as to make sure that no additional Americans are harmed under this program.

According to AP News, the 2017 New York City truck attack, perpetrated by Sayfullo Saipov, who entered the country via the lottery, has been listed by the administration officials as a prime example of how random selection can circumvent the strict national security procedures. The Brown University shooting has now become the last trigger to this executive freeze.

The Diversity Visa program, established under the Immigration Act of 1990, allocates roughly 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to individuals from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the U.S. 

Past Conflicts and Future Projections

The lottery is a contentious issue in Washington over the years. Others in support claim that it creates goodwill in the world and offers a legal avenue to people in underrepresented areas, especially Africa and Central Asia. 

Nonetheless, the Trump administration has always framed the program as a weakness that is exploited by aggressive intelligence agents, criminals and terrorists, based on White House archives.

The suspension is an indication that the existing regime no longer considers the framework used in 1990 to be working. The President is also reinforcing his position, which is that the complete overhaul of the immigration system must quite rightly base its merit-based and rigorous security checks on factor other than random selection on diversity.

The Implications to Immigrants

The suspension has an instant effect on millions of applicants the world over. In 2025 alone, almost 20 million individuals entered the lottery. The already chosen, although yet to be interviewed, now have no idea of their own future, as their road to legal residency is more or less stalled by the pause.

According to Newsday, legal experts state that the suspension will most likely bring about instant court fighting. Because the program was devised by the enactment of a Congress act, some people maintain that the executive branch should not indefinitely be allowed to scrap the program without a legislative act.

Nonetheless, the administration does not seem to be deterred as it relies on the tragedy in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to explain that the existing rules are broken and cannot be repaired any longer. To the supporters of complete overhaul of the immigration system, the suspension is seen as the precursor towards a completely new system that would have been built on extreme vetting.

With the the Gold Card program, the second initiative, under which visas are granted based on the possibility of significant investment in financial activities, the difference in approach of the administration becomes obvious: abandon lotteries, transfer to highly regulated, special entry points.