U.S. President Donald Trump has suspended the Diversity Visa Lottery Program, a move that shocked this year’s selected applicants.
The decision came after it was revealed that the suspect involved in the recent shootings at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had entered the United States through this program.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that, following Trump’s directive, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been ordered to temporarily halt the program. She stated, “This heinous individual should never have been allowed into our country.”
The Diversity Visa Program offers up to 50,000 green cards annually through a lottery system to individuals from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S., many of which are in Africa.
For the 2025 visa lottery, nearly 20 million people applied, and over 131,000 individuals were selected when including spouses of the winners.