According to the Department of Homeland Security, US President Donald Trump’s administration has blocked the ability to register Harvard international students.
In a post on X on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Christa Noem said the Trump administration would “hold responsibility for Harvard’s violence, anti-Semitism and coordination with the Chinese Communist Party on campus.”
“It’s not a right, not a right, for a university to register international students and benefit from tuition payments to fill billions of dollars in donations,” she said. “Harvard had many opportunities to do the right thing, and he refused.”
In a letter to the University Administration, Noem said the accreditation of the university’s Student Exchange Visitors Program has been revoked. The program is overseen by the US Homeland Security Investigation Force, which falls under the NOEM lead.
The move not only does Harvard University not be able to accept foreign students on campus, but it also means that current students will need to “relocate to another university to maintain their non-immigrant status,” the letter said.
In a statement, Harvard called the move “illegal” and “retaliation action.”
“We are from over 140 countries and are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host international students and academics that enrich the university and the country,” the university said.
This action shows escalation amid wider conflicts between universities. It refused to agree to a list of requests related to its diversity programme and its response to Palestinian protests.
The administration responded with three federal funding and grant cuts totaling over $2.6 billion. The latest one was Monday. Harvard is now pursuing a lawsuit accusing him of protesting the US Constitution.
Earlier this week, Harvard President Alan Gerber called on alumni to support and donate behind the university.
“The institutions entrusted to us face challenges unlike others in our long history,” Gerber wrote in an email. Both funds are intended to address the gaps left by the funding cuts.
The move by the Trump administration will be a financial blow to schools and a “big problem” for students, according to immigration lawyer Leon Fresco.
“If foreign students are not in college, they will regain the tuition payments they have already paid to the university for this semester,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that Harvard will depend on that money next year.
Fresco noted that there are clear legal measures to combat the cancellation of its Forex program.
“The cancellation rules are very specific. You need to have a notification of the given cancellation intent. There must be a reason related to a violation of the Student Exchange Visitors Program,” he said. “It cannot be a politically ideological revocation that does not exist in regulations.”
Previous threats
Noem threatened in April to revoke the accreditation of Harvard’s Student Exchange Visitors Program. This requires institutions to host students on several visa types.
She gave the university administration an April 30 deadline, providing detailed records of what is known as “illegal and violent activities” of foreign students on campus, pointing to federal laws requiring disclosure of academics, registrations and disciplinary actions.
The university later said it provided the requested information to the institution, Harvard Crimson reported, but it did not provide further details.
The threat comes amid the wider crackdown by the Trump administration over Palestinian protests at universities across the United States. Federal officials broadly portray it as “anti-Semitism,” a label rejected by organizers.
“The Trump administration has cracked down hard at other universities, including Harvard and Columbia University, and other universities whose administrations say they are “anti-Semitic” on campus.
“The president set up a joint task force to address this at the start of his administration, but opposition says the task force has evolved to include everything from hiring practice deadlines to changes in curriculum at universities,” she said. “Trump himself accused the university of promoting “anti-Trump” ideology. ”
A total of 7,417 schools were approved for the US Student Exchange Visitors Program in 2023, according to federal data. The agency argues that under federal law, approved schools can be reviewed at any time.
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