Trump Admin. suspends Visa Lottery after shooting suspect found dead

As we head into Christmas Week, our team at IAP would like to wish you Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a healthy and happy New Year! This will be our final newsletter of 2025.

The Trump Administration suspended the Visa Lottery last night after it was revealed that the suspect in two deadly shootings in New England received a green card through the lottery in 2017. 

Claudio Manuel Neves Valente was found dead in a storage container in New Hampshire after an apparent suicide. Valente is suspected of killing two students and injuring nine during last weekend's mass shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island. Authorities also believe he's responsible for killing an MIT professor just two days later.

Valente, originally from Portugal, first entered the country as a graduate student in 2000. But he later received a green card through the ill-conceived Visa Lottery program, which awards up to 55,000 green cards each year through a random, computer-generated lottery. The program allows nationals of countries with lower rates of immigration to the United States to "win" green cards (and eventual citizenship). It serves no national purpose, especially since the only eligibility criterion is a high school diploma—or the equivalent—or two years of work training or experience. 

Thursday night, shortly after authorities discovered Valente's body, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the administration, under Pres. Trump’s direction, is suspending the program. She also noted that it was a Visa Lottery winner who was convicted of killing eight people in New York City in 2017 after speeding his truck down a busy bike path. These are not the only examples of lottery winners committing heinous crimes.

Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) has introduced the SAFE for America Act (H.R. 1241) in the House of Representatives, which would permanently end the Visa Lottery. Rep. Chip Roy's (R-TX) recently introduced the PAUSE Act (H.R. 6225) which would also end the program.

Congress has voted to end the Visa Lottery on four separate occasions, but the bills to do so never passed both Chambers, so were never signed into law. Click here to see our fact sheet on the Lottery.

House passes UAC reform bill

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved H.R. 4371, the Kayla Hamilton Act, which would reform the way Health and Human Services (HHS) processes unaccompanied alien children (UACs) who are apprehended after crossing the border illegally. The bill passed 225-201, with seven Democrats joining House Republicans in supporting it. 

The Kayla Hamilton Act would restrict who can sponsor UACs and strengthen the vetting process, among other things. It does not, however, eliminate the statutory requirement that certain UACs be released into the United States. You can read the bill's full details here. 

Rep. Nancy Mace & Sen. Tim Sheehy move into Immigration Rankings Top 10

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) took actions this week that propelled them into the top 10 of their chamber's respective immigration rankings on IAP Action.

Rep. Mace moved up eight spots to No. 7 after cosponsoring three bills that IAP Action rates as Key Legislation. Mace cosponsored the Nuclear Family Priority Act to end Chain Migration, the SAFE for America Act to end the Visa Lottery, and the Stopping Border Surges Act that would close many of the loopholes that were exploited during the Biden Border Crisis.

Sen. Sheehy moved up four spots to No. 10 after cosponsoring the Birthright Citizenship Act that would restrict citizenship at birth to the children of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. IAP Action rates the Birthright Citizenship Act as Key Legislation.

The biggest mover this week was Rep. Brian Jack (R-GA), whose cosponsorships of the Legal Workforce Act to mandate E-Verify, the Fairness for High Skilled Americans Act to end OPT, as well as the Nuclear Family Priority Act, Stopping Border Surges Act, and SAFE for America Act increased his ranking by 90 slots to the 29th best position in the House.

Seven Congressmen and two Senators slid this week, but the most notable was Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who cosponsored the Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929, which would grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. As a result, he fell seven slots and is now the 9th-worst-ranked Senator.

See IAP Action's full immigration rankings at IAPAction.com.

Immigration Articles

AP: Trump expands travel ban and restrictions to include an additional 20 countries
President Trump has doubled the list of countries subject to full or partial travel bans, citing “widespread corruption, fraudulent or unreliable civil documents and criminal records.” 

Washington Post: Judge in Wisconsin convicted of helping immigrant avoid arrest by ICE
The Milwaukee County Judge who made headlines early in the year when she was arrested for obstructing ICE officers who were arresting an illegal alien at her courthouse has been found guilty of a felony by a jury, and is facing up to five years in prison.

Breitbart: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: Mass Deportations Are Bringing Rents Down for Working-Class Americans
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has confirmed that rents are coming down “substantially” as a result of the estimated two million foreign-born who have been removed or otherwise left the country since President Trump came into office.

Center for Immigration Studies: GAO Report Blasts DHS’s Handling of Biden ‘Humanitarian Parole’ Programs
CIS’s Art Arthur breaks down a recent report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, which blasted the Biden Administration’s abuse of humanitarian parole as “vulnerable to fraud.”

Next Week

The House and Senate are out until January. Both will return in the first full week of January.