In an increasingly heated dispute with the Ivy League university, the Trump administration banned Harvard University from accepting international students, stating that thousands of current students would have to transfer to other universities or leave the nation.
The action was announced Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security, which claimed that Harvard had allowed “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to attack Jewish students on campus, creating an unsafe campus environment.
Additionally, it claimed that Harvard hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as 2024, accusing the university of collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party.
“This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status,” according to the agency.
Nearly 6,800 international students attend Harvard’s Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus, making up more than 25% of the student body. The majority, who come from over 100 countries, are graduate students.
Harvard declared the action illegal and stated that it is trying to help students.
“This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission,” the university stated.
Since it was the first to publicly reject White House demands for reforms at prestigious universities it has denounced as bastions of liberalism and antisemitism, the Trump administration’s conflict with Harvard, the oldest and richest university in the country, has gotten more intense.
Harvard now has to finance a large portion of its extensive research operation on its own after the federal government reduced its $2.6 billion in grants. According to President Donald Trump, he wants to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status.
Records of protests on campus have been requested by the administration
The danger to Harvard’s international enrollment is a result of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s request on April 16 for information about international students that could link them to protests or acts of violence that could result in their deportation.
Noem said the school’s sanction is “the unfortunate result of Harvard’s failure to comply with simple reporting requirements” in a letter sent to Harvard on Thursday. It prevents Harvard from accepting foreign students for the 2025–2026 academic year.
According to Noem, Harvard can resume accepting international students if it can provide a wealth of information about them in less than 72 hours.
Her revised request calls for all documentation of international students taking part in protests or risky activities on campus, including audio and video recordings.
The action nullified Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which allows the university to sponsor foreign students to obtain visas and study in the United States.
Earlier this month, Harvard President Alan Garber stated that the university has changed its governance over the past year and a half, including a comprehensive plan to fight antisemitism.
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However, he cautioned that the university would not compromise on “its core, legally-protected principles” out of concern for reprisals.
The administration claimed that its international students were “more prone to disruption, violence, or other misconduct than any other students,” but he said he was not aware of any supporting evidence.
According to Harvard College Democrats, the Trump administration is manipulating students’ lives in order to silence dissent and advance a radical agenda. In a statement, the group said, “Harvard must continue to hold the line — Trump’s attack on international students is textbook authoritarianism.”
Free speech organizations, such as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, condemned the administration, claiming that Noem is calling for a “surveillance state.”
