WASHINGTON, United States — President Donald Trump has ordered the immediate suspension of the United States’ Diversity Visa Lottery Program, commonly known as the green card lottery, citing national security and public safety concerns linked to past violent attacks involving beneficiaries of the scheme.
The directive, announced on Friday, December 19, was confirmed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said immigration authorities have been instructed to halt the program with immediate effect.
“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program,” Noem said in a statement.
The Diversity Visa Lottery allows up to 55,000 immigrants annually from countries with historically low rates of migration to the United States to obtain permanent residency through a random selection process. For decades, the program has been particularly popular among applicants from Africa, Eastern Europe, and parts of Asia.
Noem said renewed scrutiny of the program followed a deadly shooting at Brown University involving a former diversity visa recipient. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the suspect, identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, entered the U.S. through the diversity lottery in 2017 and later obtained permanent residency.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem said, arguing that the program exposes the U.S. to individuals who are insufficiently vetted.
She also referenced an earlier terrorist attack during Trump’s first term in office, pointing to the 2017 New York City truck ramming that killed eight people. The attacker in that incident had also entered the U.S. through the diversity visa pathway.
“In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist who entered under the DV1 program,” Noem said.
The suspension marks a significant escalation in Trump’s hardline immigration agenda, which has increasingly focused on restricting legal migration channels alongside efforts to curb undocumented immigration.
The move comes weeks after Trump announced plans to halt migration from what he described as “Third World countries,” framing the policy as necessary for America’s recovery and domestic stability.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover,” Trump said in a November statement, adding that his administration would seek to denaturalise and deport individuals it considers security risks or economic burdens.
Immigration advocates and civil rights groups have long defended the diversity visa program, arguing that it promotes lawful migration, strengthens multicultural ties, and fills labour and skills gaps in the U.S. economy. Critics, however, including Trump, have repeatedly described it as a “random” system that undermines merit-based immigration.
The Department of Homeland Security has not indicated how long the suspension will remain in place or whether Congress will be asked to repeal or amend the program permanently.
Existing visa holders and lawful permanent residents are exempt from the suspension, alongside diplomats, athletes, and individuals whose entry is deemed to align with U.S. national interests.
The decision is expected to have significant implications for thousands of prospective applicants worldwide, particularly in Africa, where the diversity visa has been a major legal migration pathway to the United States for decades.
