In a significant move, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the suspension of the Diversity Visa Program (DV1) following a tragic incident at Brown University. The decision comes in response to the shocking revelation that the suspect in the shooting, which resulted in the deaths of two students, had previously been granted a diversity visa.
On December 13, a tragic shooting occurred at the physics building of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where two students lost their lives and nine others were injured. The police later identified the suspect as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national. Valente was a former student of the university, having enrolled in a Ph.D. program in physics back in 2000, as stated by the university's president, Christina H. Paxson.
In addition to the Brown University shooting, Valente is also suspected of murdering Nuno Loureiro, a physics professor from MIT, at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, just two days after the university incident. Authorities confirmed Valente was found deceased in a storage facility in New Hampshire on Thursday. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston later announced that there is no longer a threat to the public following Valente's death.
Secretary Noem revealed that Valente entered the U.S. through the Diversity Visa Program in 2017 and subsequently obtained a green card. This program, which allocates up to 50,000 immigrant visas annually, is designed to promote diversity by randomly awarding visas to individuals from countries with low immigration rates to the U.S., according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website.
The suspension of the Diversity Visa Program has drawn on past political sentiments, particularly referencing President Trump's efforts to eliminate the program following a similar incident in New York City involving an ISIS terrorist who entered under the DV1 program and caused the deaths of eight individuals. In a post on X, Noem expressed her concerns about the program, stating, “I have instructed the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.”
This decision marks a pivotal moment in the ongoing debate over immigration policies in the United States, raising questions about the effectiveness and safety of the Diversity Visa Program in light of recent events.