President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on June 4 to suspend international visas for new students at Harvard University as his administration and the Ivy League college battle in court over frozen federal funding.
The proclamation accuses Harvard of failing to “discipline at least some categories of conduct violations on campus.” It also states that U.S. adversaries, such as the Chinese Communist Party, are trying to “take advantage of American higher education by exploiting the student visa program for improper purposes and by using visiting students to collect information at elite universities in the United States.”
The Trump administration is accusing Harvard of not properly addressing these allegations and of refusing requests from the Department of Homeland Security for information about foreign students’ “known illegal activity.”
“These actions and failures directly undermine the Federal Government’s ability to ensure that foreign nationals admitted on student or exchange visitor visas remain in compliance with Federal law,” Trump’s proclamation stated.
In a statement to The Epoch Times, Harvard said it “will continue to protect its international students.”
“This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights,” a Harvard spokesperson said.
The White House said the move was to “safeguard national security” amid Harvard’s alleged failure to “provide sufficient information” on its foreign students and its “reporting deficient data on only three students.”
“Harvard is either not fully reporting its disciplinary records for foreign students or is not seriously policing its foreign students,” the proclamation stated.
The Trump administration has accused Harvard of failing to address anti-Semitism on campus and of continuing its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
The same week, she ordered the Trump administration to hold off indefinitely from making any changes to Harvard’s international student visa program.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had previously issued a directive to terminate Harvard’s SEVP certification. She cited the school’s refusal to hand over conduct records for foreign students, which the agency had requested in April.
Harvard has repeatedly defended its actions and accused the Trump administration of retaliating after the university refused to comply with a list of demands earlier this year, when the president announced that billions of dollars in Harvard’s federal funding would be frozen.
Harvard says its First Amendment rights have been violated, and it has sued to reclaim the frozen funding.
In addition to accusing Harvard of not doing enough to address anti-Semitic discrimination on campus, the White House alleged that the Ivy League institution fosters ties with the Chinese Communist Party.
