A pedestrian wearing a Harvard University sweatshirt on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.
Sophie Park | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Trump administration blocked Harvard University on Thursday from enrolling future international students and retaining currently enrolled foreign students.
The Department of Homeland Security said it revoked Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification because the private school’s leadership “has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment.”
“Many of these agitators are foreign students,” DHS said.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who ordered the revocation, said, “Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.”
Harvard called the revocation “unlawful.”
“We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University – and this nation – immeasurably,” the university said in a statement
“We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community,” the statement said. “This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission.”
DHS said that in addition to barring enrollment of future international students, “existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status.” The revocation was first reported by The New York Times.
As of the fall 2023 semester, International students comprised more than 27% of Harvard’s total enrollment, according to university data.
As Noem’s order became public, a federal judge in Oakland, California, issued an injunction against President Donald Trump and Noem barring them from terminating the legal status of international students pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging the termination of the legal status of several such students.
The injunction could block the Trump administration from acting on its threat against international students currently enrolled at Harvard.
Noem in April had threatened to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll international students.
She warned the university at that time that its certification to enroll foreign students was contingent upon complying with federal immigration laws.
In a statement on Thursday, Noem said, “This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.”
“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,” Noem said.
“It refused.”
“They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law.”
The Trump administration in April froze $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard, hours after the university roundly rejected demands that it eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and evaluate international students for ideological concerns.
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