Will Donald Trump’s ban on enrolling foreign students in Harvard lead to mass deportation?

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US President Donald Trump’s administration has taken a new step in its ongoing dispute with Harvard University by removing the school’s ability to enroll international students. The government has told thousands of current foreign students at Harvard that they must transfer to other schools or lose their legal status to remain in the United States.Harvard currently has nearly 6,800 international students, most of them in graduate programs, news agency Associated Press reported. Many of these students now need to quickly decide their next steps.The US department of homeland security (DHS) announced the move on Thursday. Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said the action was taken because Harvard did not fully comply with requests for records related to its foreign students. In a letter, Noem accused Harvard of “perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies.“

The US government holds broad authority over who can enter the country, including international students. The department of homeland security (DHS) operates a system to oversee and track the enrollment of hundreds of thousands of foreign students studying in the US at any given time.To participate in this system, called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), colleges and universities must receive government certification. This requirement has become a point of leverage for the Trump administration in its actions against Harvard.DHS announced that it has immediately revoked Harvard’s certification to access SEVIS. This means the university can no longer register international students in the database. Interestingly, many of the affected students may still hold valid visas, but without Harvard’s access to SEVIS, the university cannot officially report their enrollment status.This move marks a sharp increase in the administration’s efforts to push Harvard to comply with President Trump’s policy demands.Harvard has responded by saying the move is unlawful and that it harms the university’s research mission.How will the decision impact Harvard and its international students?The US government has control over who can enter the country. DHS oversees which colleges are part of the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, which allows schools to admit foreign students and issue the necessary documents for them to apply for study visas. On Thursday, DHS said it would remove Harvard from this program.Students who are finishing their degrees this semester will still be allowed to graduate. However, Noem said the change would take effect for the 2025–2026 school year. Harvard’s Class of 2025 is expected to graduate next week.The SEVIS termination for Harvard would mean that all foreign students at the school would be in limbo. The students would, en masse, become deportable immediately, unless they transferred to another school, or unless a court intervened to block the termination by Homeland Security. Students who took no action to enroll elsewhere would be violating the terms of their status and subject to removal.Students who have not yet completed their degrees will need to transfer to another university to keep their legal status in the US, according to Noem.New international students who planned to join Harvard in the fall will not be allowed to enroll unless the government changes its decision or a court blocks the action. Noem said Harvard can restore its status if it complies with a list of demands within 72 hours. These include providing disciplinary records for international students and any audio or video recordings of protest activity. Harvard had previously not provided these records.The university said Thursday that it is working to support the affected students.‘Unpredented’ decisionWhile the government has removed schools from the Student Exchange and Visitor Program before, those cases usually involved administrative issues, such as losing accreditation or not having qualified staff. “I’ve never seen it revoked for any reason besides the administrative issues listed in the statute. This is unprecedented,” Sarah Spreitzer, vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education was quoted as saying by the news agency Associated PressThe Trump administration’s actions against Harvard began in April, after the university refused to follow federal demands to limit pro-Palestinian protests and remove diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Since then, federal agencies have cut research grants to Harvard, affecting many faculty projects. In response, Harvard has filed a lawsuit to end the grant freeze.The government first warned in April that it might revoke Harvard’s ability to host international students. President Trump has also said that Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status, which could affect its fundraising efforts, as many donors give to tax-exempt institutions for tax benefits.(With inputs from agencies)