US President Donald Trump has ordered the suspension of the country’s green card lottery programme following the deadly shooting at Brown University, according to US officials.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said immigration authorities have been instructed to pause the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) programme after the suspect in the attack was found to have entered the United States through the scheme.
The shooting took place on 13 December at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where two students were killed and several others injured when a gunman opened fire inside a university building. Police identified the suspect as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national.
University officials said Valente had studied physics at Brown University more than two decades ago but had no active affiliation with the institution at the time of the attack.
Investigators also believe the suspect was involved in the killing of an MIT physics professor in Massachusetts days after the Brown University shooting.
Authorities later confirmed that Valente was found dead inside a storage facility in New Hampshire. Officials said there is no longer any threat to the public.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Valente entered the US in 2017 through the diversity visa lottery and was granted permanent residency.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Programme issues up to 50,000 green cards each year through a random selection process for applicants from countries with low levels of immigration to the US. The programme has faced criticism in the past over security concerns.
US officials said the suspension will remain in place while authorities review immigration policies linked to national security and public safety.