The Immigrant Visa Program (DV Program), also known as the “Visa Lottery,” was suspended Thursday, Dec. 18, at the request of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said the program was used by the gunman at Brown University eight years ago.
Kristi Noem/PHOTO: Profimedia
“This despicable person should never have been allowed into our countryNoem stated on X.At the direction of President Trump, I am immediately ordering USCIS to suspend the DV1 program to ensure that no more Americans are affected by this disastrous program.”
Noem said the alleged attacker, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, entered the United States through the program in 2017 and was issued a permanent resident permit, CBS News writes.
Launched in the 1990s, the program offers 50,000 visas annually to people from countries with relatively low immigration rates to the US, with recipients randomly selected through a lottery. Every year, tens of millions of people compete for visas through this program.
To be eligible for a diversity visa, applicants must have at least a high school education or two years of work experience in a field that requires training. They must also go through security checks and an interview before receiving their visa.
The DV program was created by Congress and most visas are handled by the State Department, with a small number processed by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for those already in the US.
Trump has long criticized the program, citing security risks and lack of merit criteria, and tried to eliminate it after a fatal attack by a lottery winner. The program was suspended in 2020 due to the pandemic, but Biden reversed the decision in 2021.
Neves Valente, 48, was a Portuguese national whose last known residence was in Miami, officials said at a news conference Thursday night.
More than a decade before obtaining a diversity visa, Neves Valente was admitted to the US on a student visa in 2000 to pursue graduate studies at Brown University.
The university president says he studied there for a few months starting in the fall of 2000, but took a break the following spring and officially retired two years later.
Authorities said Neves Valente was found dead after taking his own life in a warehouse in New Hampshire late Thursday, ending a days-long investigation into a shooting at Brown that left two students dead and nine wounded.
