NAIROBI,Kenya,Dec 19— The United States has announced a temporary pause of its Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV1) following revelations that the suspect in last week’s Brown University shooting entered the country through the lottery-based scheme.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem confirmed Thursday that the shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, received a green card through the DV1 program in 2017.
This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem said in a post on X.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, administered by the U.S. Department of State, allocates up to 50,000 immigrant visas annually to individuals from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Most winners reside outside the U.S. and enter through consular processing.
A smaller number may already be residing in the U.S. under other legal statuses when they win the lottery.
The move could have significant implications for prospective immigrants, particularly from African nations, including Kenya.
Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national and former student at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, allegedly killed two students in the December 13 shooting and injured nine others, six of whom remain hospitalized.
Authorities also believe he killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor two days later.
Following a six-day multi-state manhunt, Valente was found dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, authorities confirmed.
The tragedy has reignited debate over the DV1 program and its role in U.S. immigration policy.
