Trump, Noem Tackle Harvard
Taking a strict interpretation of federal law, Homeland Security secretary hits Harvard where it hurts--in the pocketbook.
The Trump administration has “revoked Harvard University’s 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 country,” AP reports. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cited violence, potential espionage, and antisemitism among the reasons for the action:
The Department of Homeland Security announced the action Thursday, saying Harvard has created an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist 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 2024.
“This 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.
More than one-quarter of Harvard’s students are not American-born, AP notes:
Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 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 countries.
Nearly all of those students pay full tuition.
The federal government certainly has no authority to tell universities whom they may enroll—though it did exactly that for more than a half-century through affirmative action rules. The Constitution, however, grants Congress the authority to manage immigration and naturalization, and current federal law requires institutions of higher education to have certification by the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) in order to enroll such students.
Noem is removing that certification from Harvard, which is within the scope of the government’s statutory authority, though a federal judge immediately blocked the ban (of course). The SEVP was established in 2002, and Homeland Security has the authority to manage it, as CNN reports:
Guidelines set by ICE say that SEVP-certified schools have “serious legal obligations” to the student and the US government.
“SEVP will exercise the full authority of the U.S. government to protect you and to institute sanctions against any school that disregards its responsibilities,” according to the ICE fact sheet.
The law requires colleges and universities to supply certain information about their international students, and that is what Homeland Security has asked Harvard to do. CNN reports,
As of now, the only way Harvard can regain its ability to enroll international students would be to submit detailed records of such students participating in activities deemed “illegal,” “dangerous” and threatening from over the past five years to DHS. The school will have 72 hours to do so, Noem warned in her letter Thursday.
Noem specified that records should include any disciplinary actions, as well as audio and video footage of “any protest activity” involving foreign students on campus.
“Providing materially false, fictitious or fraudulent information may subject you to criminal prosecution,” the secretary wrote. “Other criminal and civil sanctions may also apply.”
Another CNN story notes Noem and Harvard disagree on whether the university complied with Homeland Security’s request:
Noem said she ordered her department to terminate Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, citing the university’s refusal to turn over the conduct records of foreign students requested by the DHS last month.
Harvard’s suit says it did provide requested information to the department, but “DHS deemed Harvard’s responses ‘insufficient’—without explaining why or citing any regulation with which Harvard failed to comply.”
Harvard’s lawsuit against the order calls for a court to interfere in an Executive Branch decision, a Homeland Security official argues. CNN reports:
“This lawsuit seeks to kneecap the President’s constitutionally vested powers under Article II. 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,” said Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin in a statement.
“The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system; no lawsuit, this or any other, is going to change that. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.”
It appears unfair of Noem and Trump to single out Harvard for this sanction, but the action does seem to have a basis in law. Noem can refute university officials’ and supporters’ claims that the decision is “unlawful” “extortion” and a “retaliatory action” toward Harvard by showing that the administration is not singling Harvard out and the university is simply the first in what will be an ongoing effort to execute the SEVP program properly.
That is in fact what the Trump administration is doing, CNN reports:
The Trump administration appears poised to make an example of Harvard as it threatens similar punishment to other institutions if they don’t cooperate.
“This should be a warning to every other university to get your act together,” Noem said on Fox News.
Like seemingly everything in America these days, this will play out in the courts.
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