12/19/2025
The US Has Suspended the Green Card
The Trump administration has formally suspended the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) lottery, the program that issues up to about 50,000 green cards annually, after the suspected shooter in recent Brown University and MIT shootings was reported to have entered the U.S. through that program. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the program “allowed” the individual into the country and that it posed a risk, framing the suspension as a public-safety and security action at President Trump’s direction.
Trump has long criticised the diversity lottery, arguing it lacks merit-based criteria and could admit people who might threaten safety. The suspension reflects those long-term goals and is consistent with broader efforts to tighten legal immigration. Critics note that the lottery winners undergo extensive vetting, but administration officials have used isolated violent incidents to justify pausing the program.
The pause of the DV lottery is occurring alongside other immigration restrictions, including freezing immigration applications for nationals of certain “high-risk” countries designated under expanded travel bans, and other tightened vetting measures. Officials have described these moves as efforts to ensure maximum screening of all applicants before granting residency or other immigration benefits.
