Diversity visa lottery suspended by Trump after Brown University and MIT shooter background revealed

TLDR:

• President Trump suspended the diversity visa lottery after the Brown University and MIT shooter entered the U.S. through the program
• Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the Portuguese gunman a “heinous individual who should never have been allowed in our country”
• The suspension achieves Trump’s long-sought immigration reform goal, which he first proposed in 2018 as part of Dreamer amnesty negotiations
• The program awards 50,000 green cards annually by random chance, drawing nearly 23 million applicants in 2020

President Trump has suspended the diversity visa lottery program after authorities revealed that the gunman in this month’s university shootings entered the United States through the chance-based immigration system.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Thursday night that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, who attacked Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before taking his own life, came to the U.S. through the lottery program.

“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Ms. Noem said, adding that Mr. Trump directed her to shut down the program.

The suspension fulfills Mr. Trump’s long-standing immigration reform objective. He first proposed ending the lottery in 2018 as part of a deal to grant amnesty to illegal immigrant “Dreamers” in exchange for border wall funding and new limits on family migration.

Mr. Valente, a Portuguese national who previously studied at Brown earlier this century, received his immigration pass through a system that awards 50,000 green cards annually based on random selection rather than employment qualifications or family ties.

The program draws massive global interest, with nearly 15 million applications covering more than 23 million people filed in 2020.

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• Diversity visa program suspended after connection to university shooter revealed