US President Donald Trump has moved swiftly to suspend the Green Card Diversity Lottery programme, reacting angrily to a deadly classroom shooting at Brown University that left two undergraduate students dead.
The abrupt decision follows an incident in which a gunman opened fire inside a university classroom, triggering national outrage and renewed scrutiny of America’s immigration screening systems. The move comes just days after #Trump announced sweeping restrictions barring citizens from several Third World countries from entering the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Thursday, December 18, that the President had ordered the immediate suspension of the programme, directing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to halt all Diversity Visa Lottery processing.
According to US government officials, preliminary investigations revealed that the suspected shooter entered the United States in 2017 through the Diversity Visa immigrant programme and was later granted permanent residency.
Noem said the shooting reinforced long-standing concerns held by Trump over the lottery system, which he has repeatedly criticised as dangerous and poorly vetted.
“In 2017, President Trump fought to end this programme following the devastating New York City truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist who entered the US under the DV1 programme and murdered eight people,” Noem said.
She added that the latest tragedy had left the President with no choice but to act decisively.
“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately ordering USCIS to pause the DV1 programme to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous policy,” she said.
The suspension marks another hardline step in Trump’s broader immigration crackdown, signalling zero tolerance following violent incidents linked to immigration pathways. #US #GreenCard