President Donald Trump has directed that the United States green card lottery programme be suspended.
The instruction was disclosed on Friday by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, during a news briefing.
Noem said the programme was used by the suspect involved in the Brown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) shootings to gain entry into the United States.
The programme — also known as the Diversity Visa Immigrant Programme (DV1) — issues up to 50,000 green cards each year to immigrants selected through a lottery system.
In 2025, nearly 20 million people applied for the visa lottery, with more than 131,000 applicants selected.
Those chosen are subsequently subjected to vetting before being allowed into the US.
Trump has consistently criticised the initiative.
Oscar Perez, police chief in Providence, Rhode Island, said the shooting suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, a Portuguese national, first entered the United States in 2000 on a student visa and later obtained permanent residency in 2017.
Perez added that Valente was discovered dead on Thursday evening from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem said on X.
Noem’s statement represents the latest case in which a tragic incident has been referenced by Trump to push forward his immigration policy agenda.
Following the identification of an Afghan national as the gunman in a deadly November attack on National Guard members, the Trump administration rolled out broad measures limiting immigration from Afghanistan and several other countries.
In the 2025 DV1 programme, Portuguese nationals secured just 38 slots.
Lottery winners are typically invited to apply for permanent residency, attend consular interviews, and undergo the same screening procedures required of all green card applicants.