5 questions about the diversity visa lottery shutdown

December 19, 2025

1. What prompted President Trump to order the shutdown of the diversity visa lottery program?

President Trump ordered Homeland Security to shut down the program after learning that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the gunman who attacked Brown University and MIT this month before killing himself, entered the United States through the diversity visa lottery. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Valente came through the lottery program and said Mr. Trump ordered her to shut it down, stating, “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.”

2. What is the diversity visa lottery and how does it work?

The diversity visa lottery doles out 50,000 immigration passes per year based on chance rather than job skills or family ties, giving recipients a green card signifying permanent legal status and providing a path to citizenship. The program was created with the goal of broadening the demographics of immigrants to the U.S. beyond traditional sending nations in Europe and the Western Hemisphere.

3. How popular is the diversity visa lottery program?

The program is heavily sought after globally. In 2020, nearly 15 million applications covering more than 23 million people were filed, with nearly 1.7 million applications from Uzbekistan alone (about 5% of that country’s total population) and another 950,000 from Sierra Leone (more than 10% of its population).

SEE ALSO: Diversity visa program suspended after connection to university shooter revealed

4. What has been President Trump’s position on this program historically?

Mr. Trump has long pushed for ending the lottery as part of a more purposeful immigration system. He included ending the lottery in his 2018 proposal to grant amnesty to illegal immigrant “Dreamers” in exchange for border wall funding and new limits on chain family migration.

5. What are the main arguments for and against the diversity visa lottery?

Supporters say the program is part of America’s soft power, giving people in far-flung places hope of attaining a place in the United States. Critics argue the program is subject to fraud, offers little concrete value to the U.S., and suggest either cutting those visas or reallocating them to immigrants coming for family reunification or employment purposes.

This article is written with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence based solely on Washington Times original reporting and wire services. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Ann Wog, Managing Editor for Digital, at awog@washingtontimes.com

The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com.

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