Trump blocks Harvard from enrolling foreign students
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Trump administration revokes Harvard’s ability to admit international students, escalating a dispute over federal immigration records.
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People walk between buildings, Dec. 17, 2024, on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts (AP)
In a striking escalation of its political standoff with higher education institutions, the Trump administration on Thursday revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students, citing unresolved legal concerns tied to a federal investigation.
According to a letter sent by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and obtained by The New York Times, Harvard's certification under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) was rescinded “effective immediately.”
The move effectively bars the university from admitting new foreign students under student visas.
Harvard rebukes DHS request
The revocation follows a dispute between Harvard and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the legality of a broad federal records request, which DHS initiated as part of an ongoing investigation into the university’s compliance with federal immigration rules. The administration reportedly made the decision after a series of unresolved exchanges in recent days.
“I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked,” Noem wrote in the letter.
Neither Harvard nor the DHS offered immediate public comment following the news.
Trump cuts $60 million in grants
The US Department of Health and Human Services announced on Monday that it is terminating $60 million in federal grants allocated to Harvard University, citing what it claimed was the institution’s “continued failure to address antisemitic harassment and race discrimination” on its campus.
The funding cut comes amid a sweeping crackdown by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which it frames as a reshaping of the higher education landscape, including the freeze or cancellation of nearly $3 billion in federal grants and contracts to Harvard in recent weeks alone.
Trump, upon taking office in January, has repeatedly criticized American universities for what he calls “anti-American, Marxist and radical left ideologies,” accusing elite institutions of fostering political bias and suppressing dissenting views.
Harvard has faced mounting accusations of allowing what the US administration perceives as 'antisemitic' incidents to go unaddressed, particularly following a wave of pro-Palestinian student demonstrations that swept across US campuses last year in the wake of "Israel’s" genocide in Gaza.
