For decades, Washington has treated immigration policy as a social experiment. American families have been the unwitting test subjects of this system. Politicians advocate for “diversity” from behind secure enclaves while ordinary citizens bear the consequences of an open-borders ideology. The diversity visa lottery—distributing 55,000 green cards annually through random selection—has long been a source of disaster. Lawmakers neglected to prevent it despite its risks.
Three lives were lost and nine others severely injured during a mass shooting at Brown University on December 6. The shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, entered the United States in 2017 through the diversity visa lottery (DV1) and was granted a green card. He opened fire during a finals review session at Brown University’s engineering building, killing Ella Cook of Alabama and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov of Virginia. Later that day, Valente traveled to Massachusetts and murdered Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a renowned MIT nuclear physics professor.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that Valente should never have been allowed in the United States. “The Brown University shooter entered the U.S. through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card,” she said in a statement. “This heinous individual should not have been permitted entry.” Noem noted that President Trump had previously sought to end the program following an ISIS terrorist attack in New York City in 2017, which killed eight people after the attacker entered under the DV1 program.
The diversity visa lottery randomly selects applicants from countries with historically low immigration rates. It requires no specific skills or family connections—only luck and minimal vetting. This incident echoes that tragic event of 2017, when an ISIS terrorist who entered via the same system killed eight people in Manhattan. President Trump called for ending the program at that time but faced resistance from Democrats and some Republicans.
Under President Trump’s direction, Secretary Noem has ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to immediately pause the diversity visa lottery. The families of Ella Cook, Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, and Nuno F.G. Loureiro deserve better—a government that does not gamble with lives in the name of political correctness.
Elections have consequences. This is exactly the decisive leadership Americans demanded.
