After campus shootings, Trump suspends green card lottery programme

The move came after authorities revealed that the suspect involved in the Brown University shooting had entered the United States through the Diversity Visa (DV1) lottery programme.

Announcing the decision on X, Kristi Noem, Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, said the Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, entered the US under the diversity lottery visa in 2017 and was later granted a green card.

“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem said.

She added that President Trump had earlier sought to end the programme in 2017 following the New York City truck-ramming attack by an ISIS terrorist who had also entered the US through the DV1 programme.

“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 programme to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous programme,” Noem said.

US authorities on Friday confirmed that Valente, suspected of carrying out the mass shooting at Brown University that left two students dead, died by suicide.

Officials said Valente was found dead on Thursday evening at a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In a joint statement, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, Providence Mayor Brett P. Smiley, the Providence Police Department, the Rhode Island State Police, the Boston Division of the FBI, and the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island confirmed the suspect’s death.

Authorities said Valente was responsible for the killing of two students during the shooting on December 13, 2025.

“Our singular goal was to obtain justice for the victims of this senseless act,” Attorney General Neronha said. “While we’ll never be able to prosecute this individual, I hope this result provides some measure of closure for the victims and their families.”

Neronha also praised law enforcement agencies for working around the clock since the attack to restore public safety across Rhode Island.

According to the attorney general’s office, a Rhode Island state court issued an arrest warrant for Valente on December 18, 2025, charging him with two counts of murder and 23 felony counts related to assault and firearms offences.

Later that evening, law enforcement officials tracked him to the storage facility, where he was found dead after authorities executed a federal search warrant.