What is DV1 green card visa lottery, latest in Trump's crackdown on immigration?

years after the lifelessly shot at robert brown University that left wing two dead and nine injured, the Trump administration late on Thursday (local time) announced the suspension of the DV1 green card lottery program.

US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said ⁠that the US Citizenship and ​Immigration Services (USCIS) has been instructed to pause the the Diversity Immigrant ​Visa ⁠Program (DV Program) that makes ⁠up to 50,000 ‌immigrant visas available annually.

She said that the Brown University shooting suspect, identified as 48-year-old Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente, entered the US through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and later obtained a green card.

“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country. In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people,” Noem wrote on X.

According to the USCIS website, the immigrant visas under DV program are drawn from random selection among all entries to individuals who are from countries with low rates of immigration to the country.

The DV Program is administered by the US Department of State (DOS).

Most lottery winners reside outside the United States and immigrate through consular processing and issuance of an immigrant visa, according to the USCIS.

Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, and over 1,31,000 were selected, including spouses, news agency AP reported.

The lottery winners have to undergo vetting, are invited to apply for green cards and are interviewed at consulates to get admission into the United States. They are subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.

Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. The suspension of the diverse visa lottery program is the Trump administration's latest effort in its pushback against immigration.

Before this, the Trump administration imposed a travel ban on Afghanistan and several other countries, including many African countries in November, after an Afghan man fatally shot National Guard members.

The US government also tightened its vetting process for H-1B visa applicants and their H-4 dependents, introducing mandatory social media screening for all applicants starting December 15.

“To facilitate this vetting, all applicants for H-1B and their dependents (H-4), F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas are instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to 'public'.”

Emphasising that a US visa is “a privilege and not a right,” the department said, “Every visa adjudication is a national security decision.” It added that officers rely on all available information to determine admissibility and potential risks.

The department reiterated that the US “must be vigilant” to ensure applicants do not intend to harm Americans.

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