President Donald Trump and his Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are targeting foreign students at Harvard University in an attempt to get the school to bend to their will.
ICE Barbie announced Thursday that the government is revoking the Ivy League school’s ability to enroll future international students and forcing current foreign students to either transfer or lose their legal status.
“This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” Noem wrote via X. “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.”
Noem said that Harvard had “plenty” of opportunities to cave to the administration’s demands—which the university has outright refused to do so far.
A sculler rows down the Charles River near Harvard University, seen in the background, on April 15 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
And on Friday morning, Harvard pushed back yet again, suing the Trump administration over its attack on international students.
In a letter to the the university’s community, Harvard President Alan Garber called the Trump administration’s actions “unlawful and unwarranted.”
“It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams,” he wrote.
Later on Friday, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs froze the Trump administration’s policy, granting Harvard a temporary restraining order.
Nearly 6,800 international students are enrolled at Harvard, comprising about 27% of the student body. And those students are reeling, with one Harvard PhD student from China telling CBS News, “We are still in the panic mode because this news just broke out like a few hours ago.”
For the most part, Trump and his cronies have been peddling the conservative narrative that Harvard is antisemitic to make demands of the Massachusetts school and other universities across the U.S. They’ve also claimed that over 50 schools participated in race-exclusionary practices, which is another way to say “not picking white students.”
Related | Harvard pushed back—now Trump’s ramping up his war on higher education
As for the homeland security chief’s Chinese Communist Party theory, House Republicans launched the new attack earlier this week.
Harvard student newspaper The Crimson reported that Republicans are accusing the school of “hosting and training members of a CCP paramilitary organization.”
A Harvard spokesperson told The Guardian Thursday that the government’s latest actions against the university are “unlawful” and officials are “working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community.”
“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 spokesperson added.
Trump and his toadies have been using whatever means possible to hobble Harvard. He has already frozen or revoked billions of dollars in federal funding to the school.
He also demanded the school ban masks as a means to identify and penalize student protesters. Trump also demanded—in a signed and stamped statement that his administration later claimed was a mistake—that Harvard disempower professors and reform its admission standards.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Trump-style demand without bellows for the university to do away with what’s left of any diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as well.
Overall, Harvard’s fight is just one aspect of higher education’s battle for survival against the far-reaching right.
As the giant, incredibly well-funded university continues to lose federal funding, other smaller universities are watching and waiting with bated breath.
Some schools have already made changes in response to the administration’s increasingly unhinged demands. Now Harvard stands to lose its international students, who pay the largest sum in tuition—while Trump and his cronies ready their next salvo.
Oliver Willis contributed reporting.
Editor’s note: This article was updated with new information about Harvard University’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over its attack on international students, as well as new information about a judge’s order freezing the Trump administration’s policy.
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