U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her visiting officials in the Cabinet Room at the White House on April 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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The Trump administration is threatening to revoke Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, ratcheting up its clash with the Ivy League school over accusations of campus antisemitism and discrimination.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in a letter sent Wednesday, warned Harvard that its certification to accept foreign students is “contingent upon” its compliance with federal immigration rules under Title 8.
“It is a privilege to have foreign students attend Harvard University, not a guarantee,” Noem wrote.
But the school “has created a hostile learning environment for Jewish students” due to its “failure to condemn antisemitism,” she alleged.
All U.S. schools must be certified under the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program, or SEVP, in order to host international students.
In a press release Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security also announced that Noem canceled two grants to Harvard totaling $2.7 million, calling the school “unfit to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”
The Cabinet Secretary’s letter is the latest example of President Donald Trump making demands of Harvard and other top educational institutions while threatening their finances.
Noem in Wednesday’s letter explicitly noted that Harvard “relies heavily on foreign student funding” to maintain its “substantial endowment.”
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
International students comprised more than 27% of Harvard’s total enrollment as of the fall 2023 semester, according to university statistics.
Noem also told the university that its SEVP certification will be automatically withdrawn unless it responds to a request for information about its student visa holders by April 30.
Some have opted to cooperate: Columbia University last month agreed to a list of demands in order to negotiate over the Trump administration’s cancellation of $400 million in federal funding.
But Harvard refused to acquiesce to the government’s demands, including that it scrap all DEI programs and reform its hiring and student discipline policies.
In rejecting the list, Harvard President Alan Garber accused the Trump administration of seeking “direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”
The Trump administration responded by freezing $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts with Harvard.
A Harvard spokesperson told CNBC on Thursday that the university is aware of Noem’s letter, which “follows on the heels of our statement that Harvard will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
“We continue to stand by that statement. We will continue to comply with the law and expect the Administration to do the same,” the spokesperson said.
In justifying its unprecedented targeting of higher education, the Trump administration has repeatedly pointed to the wave of protests at many universities criticizing Israel’s actions following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks by Hamas.
“Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism — driven by its spineless leadership — fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security,” Noem said in Wednesday’s press release.
“With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”
