The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, has ordered the suspension of the green card lottery program at Donald Trump’s direction, saying it allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the US.

Suspect Claudio Neves Valente, a Portuguese national, initially entered the US on a student visa in 2000 and later became a permanent resident in 2017, according to Oscar Perez, the police chief in Providence, Rhode Island. Valente was found dead on Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem said on X.

Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals.

After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other countries.

The DV1 visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the US, many of them in Africa.

Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the US. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.

Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants. (The Guardian)

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Foreigners, including Sri Lankans, can now apply for the eagerly anticipated US Diversity Immigrant Visa program.

Applications for the DV-2026 program, also known as the US Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, will be accepted from October 2, 2024, until November 5, 2024.

American laws provide for a class of immigrants known as ‘diversity immigrants’ from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. For Fiscal Year 2026, up to 55,000 Diversity Visas (DVs) will be available.

Applicants must submit entries for the DV-2026 program electronically at dvprogram.state.gov between 12:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Wednesday, October 2, 2024, and 12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), Tuesday, November 5, 2024.

• Notice from US Embassy in Colombo

Registration for the 2026 Diversity Visa Program will open today, October 2, at 12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) until November 5, 2024 at 12:00 pm EST. This program allows people from countries with low U.S. immigration rates, who meet eligibility requirements, to apply for a chance to receive a U.S. immigrant visa. dvprogram.state.gov is the ONLY way to enter. Read the program instructions at travel.state.gov/dv. (Newswire)

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