Trump Suspends Foreign Student Visas at Harvard Over National Security Concerns
The Trump administration issues a proclamation targeting Harvard University, potentially revoking visas for students and faculty.
President Donald Trump escalated his administration’s ongoing conflict with Harvard University on Wednesday by signing a proclamation directly targeting student and exchange visas for foreign nationals linked to the Ivy League institution. The directive instructs the State Department to “consider revoking” existing academic or exchange visas for current Harvard students who meet specific, though as yet undisclosed, criteria.
In a statement announcing the move, Trump asserted that “admission into the United States to attend, conduct research, or teach at our Nation’s institutions of higher education is a privilege granted by our Government, not a guarantee.” He further contended that Harvard had failed to meet federal standards, saying, “That privilege is necessarily tied to the host institution’s compliance and commitment to following Federal law. Harvard University has failed in this respect, among many others.”
The new proclamation applies only to Harvard, excluding visa holders at other universities participating in the Student Exchange Visa Program (SEVP). It also carves out exceptions for individuals whose presence in the United States is deemed to be in the national interest, according to administration officials.
This policy change comes just weeks after the State Department revealed it would begin scrutinizing all visa holders affiliated with Harvard, not only student visa recipients. The broadened investigation reportedly aims to uncover potential security weaknesses or other malfeasance within the visa system connected to the university.
Wednesday’s proclamation cited what it called Harvard’s “concerning foreign ties and radicalism,” specifically referencing the school’s financial and academic connections with foreign governments. According to the administration, Harvard has failed to report dangerous or illegal activities by international students, allegedly providing the Department of Homeland Security with “deficient data on only three students.”
The document also claimed Harvard maintains “extensive entanglements with foreign adversaries,” noting that the university has received more than $150 million from China alone. It alleged that Harvard has “hosted Chinese Communist Party paramilitary members and partnered with China-based individuals on research that could advance China’s military modernization.”
Among additional allegations, the Trump administration accused Harvard of failing to address antisemitism on campus and stated that the university has experienced a “drastic rise in crime in recent years while failing to discipline at least some categories of conduct violations on campus.”
Harvard officials have consistently denied wrongdoing and characterized the administration’s actions as retaliatory. They point to a broader campaign by the White House to freeze federal research grants, threaten the university’s ability to recruit international students, challenge its tax-exempt status, and launch investigations into alleged discrimination against certain demographic groups among its employees and applicants.
The latest proclamation marks an intensification of the standoff between the federal government and one of the nation’s most prominent academic institutions, raising questions about the future of international academic cooperation and the impact on thousands of students and researchers currently studying at Harvard.
