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The United States government announced this Friday the immediate suspension of the Diversity Visa Lottery (DV1) program, after it was confirmed that the shooter at Brown University, identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, had entered the country in 2017 through this program.
"This atrocious individual should never have been admitted to our country," declared National Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
"Under my direction, I have ordered the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to pause the DV1 program to ensure that no other American is harmed by this disastrous program," he stated.
According to the authorities, Neves Valente arrived in the United States in 2017 with a diversity immigrant visa, which allowed him to obtain permanent residency.
The suspect in the shooting on the campus of Brown University that left two dead and several injured last week is of Portuguese nationality, and was found dead on Thursday night from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
President Donald Trump recalled that in 2017 he had already attempted to eliminate the program, following the devastating terrorist attack in New York, carried out by a member of ISIS who had also entered under the Visa Lottery and caused the death of eight people.
The Diversity Visa Lottery —established in 1990— annually grants 55,000 permanent residences to citizens of countries with low immigration rates to the United States, including Cuba.
With the suspension announced by Trump, thousands of applicants worldwide, including many Cubans, will see their aspirations to legally emigrate to the United States affected.
This measure reinforces the controversial immigration policy of the Republican president, focused on prioritizing national security and reforming the immigrant admission processes that, as he has stated, “put the safety of the American people at risk.”
In November, the government had confirmed that the registration for the 2027 Visa lottery was not open.
However, their policies are under public scrutiny with growing opposition from both Americans and immigrants residing in the country.
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