The US Department of Homeland Security is demanding that Harvard submit detailed reports by April 30 on “illegal and violent activity” by foreign students, threatening to revoke the programme’s certificate that allows it to admit exchange students.
The certificate, as explained on the ministry’s website, allows universities to issue accepted foreign students with forms they can use to apply for visas to enter the US.
“Harvard kneeling before anti-Semitism … fuels a cesspool of extremist unrest and threatens our national security,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in the letter.
She accused Harvard’s international students and faculty with university visas of expressing “anti-Semitic hatred” towards Jewish students in the wake of the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by “Hamas” (a group recognised as a terrorist group in the EU and US). “With a $53.2 billion endowment, Harvard can fund its own chaos,” the ministry claimed.
Harvard told CNN that the university is aware of Noem’s letter but stands by its previous statement and “will not give up its independence or constitutional rights.”
According to the university, Harvard has 6,793 international students-that’s 27.2 per cent of the total enrollment for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Earlier, the Donald Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in funding for Harvard because of the university’s refusal to comply with government demands to combat anti-Semitism.
The $2.2 billion grant was frozen after Harvard rejected government demands for reforms to restore ideological balance on campus. The government’s demands, according to Harvard’s own statement, included “audits” of academic programmes and departments and the views of students, faculty and staff, as well as changes to the university’s governance structure and hiring practices.