Trump Doubles Down on Demands for Info on Harvard’s International Students

Trump Administration Demands Information and Revokes SEVP

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revoked Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification which affects the university’s ability to enroll international students.

Noem terminated Harvard’s SEVP certification in retaliation for the university refusing to hand over information on the supposed “illegal and violent activities” of their international students. Even after a judge temporarily blocked this move, Trump doubled down in his demands for information on international students. Trump claimed that some international students come from countries "not at all friendly to the United States" and that his administration has a right to know the “names and countries” of those students.

This marks further escalation in the administration targeting international students for their nationality and political beliefs and coercing universities to cooperate with Trump’s executive order to combat antisemitism on college campuses (See Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism)

Noem’s Demands Go Beyond Required Information Sharing

To be able to enroll international students under F-1 or M-1 student visas, an institution must have SEVP certification with ICE. Universities are required to provide basic information on international students, like their address or academic status, to SEVP. However, Noem demanded information on:

• a student’s “known dangerous or violent activity”

• the “deprivation of rights of other classmates or university personnel”

• “whether any student visa holders have had disciplinary actions taken as a result of making threats to other students or populations or participating in protests, which impacted their nonimmigrant student status.”

This goes way beyond the required information a university must provide for their international students and is not just the “names and countries” that Trump’s comments imply. Furthermore, the government already has access to the “names and countries” of international students through the student visa process.

Revoking SEVP Puts Pressure on Harvard to Comply with Trump EO

With her demands for information on “illegal and violent activities” of international students, Noem is targeting student movements calling for a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza which many members of the US government falsely portray as “antisemitic,” “sympathizing with terrorists,” and being “pro Hamas.”

Trump’s order, Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, uses this false characterization to justify revoking the visas of international students under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3) for suspicions of engaging in or endorsing terrorist activities and associating with terrorist organizations.

Trump’s order also calls on institutions to collaborate with his anti-immigrant and anti-Palestinian policies by monitoring and reporting on the activities of their international students and noncitizen staff. Revoking SEVP in retaliation for Harvard not cooperating with the Trump administration not only puts pressure on Harvard, but also sends a message to other institutions about the consequences of non-cooperation.

Increasing Threat on the Rights of International Students

Thankfully a judge has temporarily blocked Noem’s termination of Harvard’s SEVP certification. If eventually allowed to be enforced, the nearly 7,000 international students currently enrolled at Harvard would have to transfer schools or lose their student visa status.

If the Trump administration is allowed to unilaterally revoke the SEVP certification of institutions who do not collaborate with their immigrant crackdown, many more international students will be put at risk. Trump’s executive order to combat antisemitism already threatens the First Amendment rights of international student activists, but the blanket termination of an institution’s ability to enroll international students makes all vulnerable to ICE enforcement operations if they lose their status.

This is yet another tactic of the Trump administration to target international students for their nationality and political beliefs in addition to chipping away at legal avenues of immigration.

While the Lemkin Institute continues to report on important immigration policy changes, we cannot offer individualized legal advice.

If you think you may be affected by policy changes, please contact an immigration lawyer.