Trump administration bars Harvard from enrolling foreign students

The Trump administration revoked Harvard Universitys ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school saying thousands of current students must transfer to other schools or leave the countryThe Department of Homeland Security announced the action Thursday saying Harvard has created an unsafe campus environment by allowing antiAmerican proterrorist agitators to assault Jewish students on campus It also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party saying it hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as 2024This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status the agency said in a statement Harvard enrolls almost 6800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge Massachusetts accounting for more than a quarter of its student body Most are graduate students coming from more than 100 countriesHarvard called the action unlawful and said its working to provide guidance to students This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country and undermines Harvards academic and research mission the university said in a statementThe Trump administrations clash with Harvard the nations oldest and wealthiest university has intensified since it became the first to openly defy White House demands for changes at elite schools it has criticized as hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism The federal government has cut USD 26 billion in federal grants to Harvard forcing it to selffund much of its sprawling research operation President Donald Trump has said he wants to strip the university of its taxexempt statusThe administration has demanded records of campus protestsThe threat to Harvards international enrollment stems from an April 16 request from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem who demanded that it provide information about foreign students that might implicate them in violence or protests that could lead to their deportationIn a letter to Harvard on Thursday Noem said the schools sanction is the unfortunate result of Harvards failure to comply with simple reporting requirements It bars Harvard from hosting international students for the upcoming 202526 school yearNoem said Harvard can regain its ability to host foreign students if it produces a trove of records on foreign students within 72 hours Her updated request demands all records including audio or video footage of foreign students participating in protests or dangerous activity on campusThis administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus Noem said in a statement The action revoked Harvards certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program which gives the school the ability to sponsor international students to get their visas and attend school in the United StatesHarvard President Alan Garber earlier this month said the university has made changes to its governance over the past year and a half including a broad strategy to combat antisemitism but warned it would not budge on its its core legallyprotected principles over fears of retaliation He said he wasnt aware of evidence to support the administrations allegation that its international students were more prone to disruption violence or other misconduct than any other studentsStudents in Harvard College Democrats said the Trump administration is playing with students lives to push a radical agenda and to quiet dissent Trumps attack on international students is text book authoritarianism Harvard must continue to hold the line the group said in a statementThe administration drew condemnation from free speech groups including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression which said Noem is demanding a surveillance state This sweeping fishing expedition reaches protected expression and must be flatly rejected the group said in a statementThe revocation opens a new front in a closely watched battleMany of Harvards punishments have come through a federal antisemitism task force that says the university failed to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence amid a nationwide wave of proPalestinian protests Homeland Security officials echoed those concerns in their Thursday announcement It offered examples including a recent internal report at Harvard finding that many Jewish students reported facing discrimination or bias on campusIt also tapped into concerns that congressional Republicans have raised about ties between US universities and China Homeland Security officials said Harvard provided training to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps as recently as 2024 As evidence it provided a link to a Fox News article which in turn cited a letter from House RepublicansAsked for comment on the alleged coordination with the Chinese Communist Party a Harvard spokesperson said the university will be responding to the House Republicans letter Ted Mitchell president of the American Council on Education called the latest action an illegal smallminded overreach I worry that this is sending a very chilling effect to international students looking to come to America for education he saidThe Trump administration has leveraged the system for tracking international students legal status as part of its broader attempts to crack down on higher education What was once a largely administrative database has become a tool of enforcement as immigration officials revoked students legal status directly in the system Those efforts were challenged in court leading to restorations of status and a nationwide injunction blocking the administration from pursuing further terminationsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves 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