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The United States government has suspended the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery, widely known in Ghana as the Green Card Lottery, following a deadly mass shooting at Brown University that left two people dead.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that President Donald Trump ordered the suspension to allow for a comprehensive review of the programme amid renewed public safety concerns.
The suspect, 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente, a Portuguese national, reportedly entered the US through the Diversity Visa Lottery in 2017 and later obtained permanent resident status. Authorities believe he was also linked to the killing of an MIT professor earlier in the week. Valente was later found dead in New Hampshire, with investigators suspecting a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a multi-state manhunt.
The DV Lottery permits up to 50,000 individuals annually from countries with low US migration rates to obtain permanent residency through a random selection process. Ghana has been one of the major beneficiary countries, with thousands of applicants participating each year.
The suspension has sparked widespread concern among Ghanaians, particularly young people and families who consider the programme one of the most accessible legal pathways to live and work in the United States. Although US authorities describe the move as temporary, no clear timeline has been given for the resumption of the lottery.
President Trump had previously sought to abolish the programme during his first term, citing national security concerns following violent incidents involving beneficiaries.
