Comply or lose permit to enrol International students, US dept tells Harvard

The Donald Trump administration has threatened to revoke Harvard University’s eligibility to enrol international students if it doesn’t submit detailed records of its foreign student’s “illegal and violent activities”.

US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday wrote a “scathing letter”, demanding detailed records on the alleged illegal and violent activities of Harvard’s foreign student visa holders by April 30, and threatened to revoke Student and Exchange Visitor Programme (SEVP) certification in case of non-compliance, a DHS news release said.

The DHS said since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Harvard’s foreign visa-holding rioters and faculty have spewed anti-semitic hate, targeting Jewish students. “With a $53.2 billion endowment, Harvard can fund its own chaos, DHS won’t. And if Harvard cannot verify that it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students,” it said.

Earlier this week, Harvard had said the Trump administration issued an updated and expanded list of demands, “warning that Harvard must comply if we intend to maintain [our] financial relationship with the federal government”.

Harvard president Alan Garber said the “unprecedented demands” made by the government to control the Harvard community include requirements to “audit” the viewpoints of our student body, faculty, staff and reduce the power of certain people, targeted because of their views. “We informed the administration through our legal counsel that we won’t accept their proposed agreement,” Garber had said.

Noem announced cancellation of two DHS grants of over $2.7 million to Harvard University, declaring it unfit to be entrusted with taxpayers’ dollars. The DHS said the $800,303 ‘Implementation Science for Targeted Violence Prevention’ grant branded conservatives as far-right dissidents in a shockingly skewed study.

A report in the Harvard Crimson said 12 current Harvard students and recent graduates have had their visas revoked.

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