TRUMP suspends U.S. green card lottery after Brown University shooting

Saturday, December 20, 2025 -In a dramatic policy shift this week, President Donald Trump has ordered an immediate suspension of the U.S. green card lottery — officially known as the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) program — citing national security concerns after a deadly shooting at Brown University. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the halt on social media, stating the suspected shooter, who killed multiple people at Brown and later a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, entered the country through the lottery program. Officials argued the move is necessary “to ensure no more Americans are harmed” by what they labeled a flawed immigration pathway.

The decision stops all current processing of the DV lottery, which each year awards up to 50,000 permanent residency visas to applicants from underrepresented countries with low levels of recent U.S. immigration. For 2025, nearly 20 million people applied, with over 131,000 selected before vetting stages. 

The suspension leaves those applicants — from Africa, Asia, and other regions — in limbo as the administration reassesses the program’s future. Legal experts and immigrant advocates are already preparing challenges, arguing that halting a long-standing legal immigration route over isolated incidents could set a dangerous precedent.

Critics warn that this abrupt policy could have far‑reaching consequences for U.S. immigration and economic growth. Many hopeful immigrants and families rely on the lottery as one of the few accessible legal paths to live and work in the United States. With no clear timeline for when — or if — the program might resume, uncertainty is soaring among applicants worldwide. 

Meanwhile, political observers say this move fits into a broader pattern of tightening immigration rules under the Trump administration, spotlighting the ongoing clash between national security rhetoric and immigration reform debates.