The Trump administration has escalated its attacks on academic freedom by barring Harvard University from enrolling international students.
The New York Times reports, citing three unnamed sources, that the White House told the university of the ban after back-and-forth discussions between White House officials and the university about whether a records request from the government was legal.
“I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote in a letter to the institution.
The decision means that the university will not be able to enroll students on F- or J- nonimmigrant visas for the 2025–2026 academic year. Harvard currently has nearly 7,000 international students, making up 27 percent of the school’s student body. In a press release, Noem said that these students must transfer or lose their legal status.
Earlier this month, President Trump threatened Harvard with the loss of its tax-exempt status, and in April, Noem demanded the university turn over records on the “illegal and violent” activities of its foreign student visa holders, threatening that if the university didn’t comply, its “privilege of enrolling foreign students” would end.
The university ended up sending some student information to the Department of Homeland Security but did not specify which records were turned over. Noem’s letter called the submitted records “insufficient” and said that they didn’t follow “simple reporting requirements.”
“This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” Noem said in the press release. “It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused.”
“They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country,” Noem added.
The university continues to lose more federal grants each day, the latest $60 million in cuts coming Monday. The new ban will be well received by conservatives, who have long accused higher education in the U.S. of being a bastion of liberal thought. Many on the right continue to accuse universities of stoking criticism of Israel by allowing protests against Israel’s war in Gaza over the past year. Those grievances have culminated in threatening Harvard’s very existence.
This story has been updated.
The post Trump Bans International Students at Harvard in Horrifying Move appeared first on New Republic.
