Harvard sues Trump for cutting off international students

Harvard University on Friday sued the Trump administration after the Department of Homeland Security terminated its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification for the 2025-2026 school year. The university has held the certification for more than 70 years, according to the lawsuit. Now, Harvard can no longer enroll international students, and existing foreign students must transfer to a different school or lose their legal status in the United States, according to the DHS. The university called the visa program revocation unlawful and retaliatory and said the action would have a devastating effect on Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders. Tensions have escalated between the university and the Trump administration over alleged mismanagement on campus. Harvard should serve as a warning to all academic institutions across the country that refuse to comply with the administration’s demands, said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

However, a federal district judge in California on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from ending the legal status of foreign students on the visa program. Judge Jeffrey S. White’s order, which applies nationwide, said the U.S. government also cannot deport or arrest foreign students who are suing to reinstate their legal status until proceedings are concluded. It wasn’t immediately clear how the injunction would affect the progress of the Harvard lawsuit.

Why did DHS terminate Harvard’s visa program? The Trump administration was holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence and anti-Semitism on campus and for coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, Noem said. Federal officials last month demanded that the school provide information about alleged criminality and misconduct of foreign students on campus. Harvard refused to comply and argued that the government overstepped its authority. Noem said the school could regain its ability to enroll international students if it submitted five years’ worth of records about foreign students’ conduct within 72 hours of her Thursday letter.

What other accusations has the government leveled against the school? A joint government task force reportedly found that Harvard failed to address racial discrimination and anti-Semitism on campus. Meanwhile, reports released by Harvard task forces found that Jewish and Muslim students felt unsafe during the 2023-2024 school year. DHS also said Harvard hosted members of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, which the government claims is a paramilitary group complicit in the Uyghur genocide in China.

How many international students attend Harvard? During the 2024-2025 school year, Harvard enrolled 6,793 international students, accounting for just over 27% of its total enrollment. Foreign students have increasingly made up larger portions of the student body over the last two decades. The university said students from more than 140 countries attended the school, with the largest groups coming from Canada, China, South Korea, India, and the United Kingdom.

Dig deeper: Read Mary Jackson’s report about the Trump administration trying to root out mismanagement and anti-Semitism at elite universities.