Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Thursday that she is pausing the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, citing its role in allowing the alleged Brown University shooter into the United States.
Noem said the move comes at the direction of President Donald Trump, who has long criticized the program. \u201cThis heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,\u201d she wrote in a post on X.
The suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a Portuguese national, entered the U.S. in 2017 through the DV1 lottery and was granted a green card.
Valente was accused in the mass shooting at Brown University and in the separate murder of an MIT professor. Officials said he was found dead Thursday from a self\u2011inflicted gunshot wound.
Noem linked the case to past attacks, recalling the 2017 New York City truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist who also entered under the DV1 program. \u201cAt President Trump\u2019s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed,\u201d she declared.
Brown University President Christina Paxson clarified Valente\u2019s ties to the school. He enrolled as a graduate student in physics in 2000 but formally withdrew in 2003. \u201cHe was not a current student, was not an employee and did not receive a degree,\u201d Paxson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supporters of the pause hailed the move as decisive. \u201cThis program has proven dangerous. It\u2019s about time someone shut it down,\u201d one commentator said. Trump allies echoed the sentiment, pointing to his long\u2011standing calls to end the lottery.
Critics, however, accused Noem of exploiting tragedy. Immigration advocates argued that linking isolated crimes to the visa lottery unfairly punishes thousands of law\u2011abiding immigrants. \u201cEnding the program stigmatizes diversity and legal pathways. This is scapegoating,\u201d one advocate commented.
On social media, reactions were sharply divided. Hashtags like #EndDV1 and #RespectedAgain trended alongside #ImmigrantRights and #StopScapegoating, reflecting the polarized mood.
Brown students and faculty expressed grief over the shooting and frustration that Valente\u2019s past affiliation was being politicized. \u201cWe lost friends. This isn\u2019t about immigration policy, it\u2019s about violence,\u201d one student said.
Analysts noted that while the pause is symbolic, it could reignite broader debates on immigration reform heading into 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Thursday that she is pausing the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, citing its role in allowing the alleged Brown University shooter into the United States. Noem said the move comes at the direction of President Donald Trump, who has long criticized the program. \u201cThis heinous individual should never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":25284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[776,4,5,458],"tags":[2348,2395,2579,2580,1726,2578,2581,2582],"class_list":{"0":"post-25285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-educational","8":"category-featured","9":"category-international","10":"category-legal","12":"tag-campus-violence","13":"tag-diversity-immigrant-visa-program","14":"tag-dv1lottery","15":"tag-immigration-policy","16":"tag-kristi-neom","17":"tag-mit-professor","18":"tag-uscis"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG-20251219-WA0052.jpg?fit=512%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25286,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25285\/revisions\/25286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}