Foreign students consider fleeing Harvard after Trump threats, university says
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People hold up signs during the Harvard Students for Freedom rally in support of international students at the Harvard University campus on May 27. Photo: Rick Friedman / AFP via Getty Images
Harvard said "too many international students to count" have asked about transferring out of the university after the Trump administration targeted the institution's ability to host students on visas.
The big picture: The government's ban was swiftly sidelined by a federal judge, but fear and confusion persist, prompting both international and domestic students to reconsider their futures, Harvard told a federal court in Boston in a Wednesday filing.
- The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
- Homeland Security on Thursday gave Harvard 30 days to explain why it should be allowed to host foreign students.
Driving the news: Maureen Martin, Harvard's director of immigration services, said in her declaration that following DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's revocation notice, Harvard and its visa holders began experiencing "immediate repercussions."
- International students and scholars have reported "significant emotional distress," with some afraid to attend their graduation ceremonies for fear of immigration action being taken against them, she said. Some have cancelled international trips to see family.
- Currently enrolled students are reconsidering their futures at the university, she said, with both international students and at least three domestic students asking about transferring.
- Those domestic students, she said, expressed "serious interest" in transferring rather than attending an institution with no international students.
Zoom out: Within hours of Noem's notice, Martin said, visa holders and applicants began experiencing "significant consequences."
- Martin said she received reports that Harvard visa holders and their dependents were required to undergo secondary processing at Boston Logan International Airport.
Threat level: Several incoming scholars and students set to attend Harvard were alerted by U.S. embassy officials that their visa applications had been denied, she said.
- While some visa applicants were invited to submit additional documentation after the judge's restraining order, Martin said that visa applications that were refused or revoked have not been approved or reinstated.
Context: Harvard is at the center of the Trump administration's crackdown on colleges and universities over alleged antisemitism on campus and their support for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
- Harvard President Alan Garber characterized the ban on international students and other actions as retaliation "for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government's illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body."
- The university has been squeezed from all angles, with federal funds frozen and a slew of new investigations. President Trump has threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status as he's railed against the three-century-old college.
What we're watching: Martin's declaration, filed in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, is part of a case against the federal government's block on international student enrollment.
- Judge Allison D. Burroughs will oversee in-person arguments in the case in a Boston courtroom Thursday.
Go deeper: Trump administration to cancel Harvard's remaining federal contracts
Editor's note: This story has been updated with DHS' Thursday letter to Harvard.
