The Trump administration announces the suspension of the green card lottery: which Latin American countries will be affected?

- Author, Sofia Ferreira Santos
- Author title, BBCNews
December 19, 2025

Updated 8 hours
Reading time: 5 mins

President Donald Trump has suspended the green card lottery program, the permanent residence permit in the United States, after a mass shooting at Brown University last week that left two people dead.

The suspect, a citizen of Portuguese origin who was found dead this Thursday, entered the country on a DV1 visa obtained through the lottery-based visa diversity program, which granted him a green card.

It’s called “diversity” because it targets applicants who come to the U.S. from countries with historically low immigration rates.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she suspended that visa program based on Trump’s instructions to “ensure that no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.”

US authorities believe that suspect Claudio Neves Valente, 48, also murdered Portuguese MIT professor Nuno Loureiro earlier this week.

How the program works

According to information available on the site, the program issues around 50,000 visas annually to applicants from a list of countries that varies each year Web the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

In 2025, almost 20 million people worldwide will have registered for this lottery.

Excluded from the program are only a few countries that have brought more than 50,000 migrants to the USA in the last five years in the regular categories (family and employment).

For fiscal year 2026 (from September 30, 2025 to October 1, 2026), 55,000 visas were offered.

The Latin American countries eligible to apply to participate in the green card lottery this year were: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela were excluded.

However, the suspension of the program leaves everyone in limbo.

As the winner of the raffle, you will not automatically receive a green card. Those selected must submit the application and undergo all standard checks and verifications, including an interview at the appropriate US consulate.

The U.S. State Department conducts this lottery through a random computer drawing and distributes diversity visas across six geographic regions. No country can receive more than 7 percent of available DVs per year.

In 2025, more than 131,000 people were selected for DV visas, including spouses or dependents of lottery winners. Portuguese citizens, the nationality of the Brown University attack suspect, received only 38 spots.

In a social media post, Noem claimed that Trump had “fought to end” that program back in 2017 after a truck attack in New York City killed eight people.

Noem said Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek citizen and supporter of the Islamic State group who is serving multiple life sentences for the attack, entered the United States through the DV1 program.

The attack on Brown University

His comments came just hours after Neves Valente was found dead in a warehouse in Salem, New Hampshire. Police believe it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police said video evidence and tips from the public led investigators to a car rental agency where they found the suspect’s name after a six-day chase across multiple states.

Green and purple images of the Brown University shooter, identified by authorities as Claudio Neves Valente, are shown during a news conference in Providence, Rhode Island. — caption, Valente has been identified as the prime suspect in last week’s mass shooting.

On December 13, a man broke into Brown University’s engineering building and opened fire during final exams.

Two students were killed and nine others were injured.

The victims were Ella Cook, 19, a sophomore from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, an Uzbek-American who had just started college.

Brown University President Christina Paxson said Neves Valente was enrolled at the Ivy League university, one of the most prestigious in the country, from the fall of 2000 to the following spring, pursuing a doctorate in physics.

According to her, she “currently had no active association” with Brown.

Authorities also believe Neves Valente shot and killed MIT professor Nuno F. Gomes Loureiro, 47, on Monday at his home in Brookline, about 50 miles from Providence.

According to police, both had studied at the same university in Portugal in the late 1990s.

Authorities claimed the cases were related when the suspect’s vehicle was identified through surveillance camera footage and a Brown University witness.

The same car was seen near the scene of the shooting that killed the professor, which occurred just two days later.

Authorities have not provided a possible motive for either attack.

Claudio Neves Valente was found dead this Thursday with a bag and two guns. According to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, evidence found in a nearby vehicle matched that found at the scene of the shooting at Brown University in Providence.