DHS threatens to revoke Harvard’s eligibility to host foreign students amid broader battle over universities’ autonomy

The Trump administration has significantly dialed up its pressure on Harvard University, not only freezing $2 billion in federal funding but now threatening its eligibility to host international students after school leaders refused to make key policy changes the White House also is demanding of other elite US colleges. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent Harvard “a scathing letter demanding detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities by April 30, 2025, or face immediate loss of Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification,” her agency said Wednesday in a news release that refers to antisemitism but does not detail specific incidents. It accuses Harvard of creating a “hostile learning environment” for Jewish students. “It is a privilege to have foreign students attend Harvard University, not a guarantee,” reads the letter, which a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson gave CNN after some of its details first were reported by the student-run Harvard Crimson. Harvard is aware of the letter and stands by its previous statement that it “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” a spokesperson for the university said late Wednesday. CNN has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is in charge of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, for more information. Noem’s letter followed Harvard’s refusal this week to submit to the Republican administration’s demands it eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, ban masks at campus protests, enact merit-based hiring and admissions reforms, and reduce the power of faculty and administrators the White House has said are “more committed to activism than scholarship.” The Ivy League school near Boston appears to be the first elite US university to rebuke the demands. Trump officials say they aim to banish antisemitism following contentious campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and to root out DEI practices – designed to advance racial, gender, class and other representation – they decry as “illegal and immoral discrimination.” Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, the executive director of the university’s Hillel, acknowledged some positive aspects of the administration’s recent demands, but said in a statement Friday the government’s escalation has been “neither focused nor measured, and stands to substantially harm the very Jewish students and scholars it purports to protect.” Separately, Jewish students at Harvard penned an open letter earlier this month in response to the Trump administration’s announcement to review the school’s funding over its response to antisemitism. “Using Jewish students to gut federal support for universities does not make us feel seen, valued, or safe. It turns us into pawns in a broader political agenda,” the letter states. “These cuts undermine our ability to confront antisemitism in honest, rigorous, and principled ways.” More than 100 students from Harvard’s Jewish community have signed the letter, according to Maia Hoffenberg, a student who helped draft the letter. “The Trump administration was claiming over and over again that it was trying to protect Jewish students, but missing from this conversation were the voices of actual Jewish students on college campuses,” Hoffenberg told CNN on Friday. “The signers of the letter and the group of drafters all acknowledge that antisemitism is a real and serious problem, but we don’t think that this is the way to address it,” she said. “The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under (federal law),” Harvard President Alan Garber said Monday in an open letter to the school community. The Trump administration more broadly has moved to revoke the visas of hundreds of students, faculty and researchers at dozens of US universities and colleges. Some are high-profile cases involving alleged support of terror organizations, while others involve relatively minor offenses, such as years-old misdemeanors. Only a handful of universities have said they knew why their students’ visas were terminated. The Internal Revenue Service, meanwhile, is making plans to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN, in what would be an extraordinary step of retaliation. And Noem on Wednesday announced the cancellation of an additional $2.7 million in federal violence prevention grants for a Harvard program her agency says “branded conservatives as far-right dissidents in a shockingly skewed study” and another it describes as “public health propaganda,” adding, “Both undermine America’s values and security.” The Trump administration on Monday said it was freezing $2.2 billion in grants and contracts to Harvard as other institutions, including Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern universities, also have seen federal funding paused. What losing SEVP access could mean Educational institutions are required to have SEVP certification with ICE in order to admit applicants who have an F-1 or M-1 student visa. The certification does not directly affect Harvard’s exchange students in the J-1 visa program, which is administered separately by the State Department. Institutions are required to provide up-to-date basic information about each student to SEVP, including their address and academic status. Noem’s letter demands far more, including information about a visa holder’s “known dangerous or violent activity” and “deprivation of rights of other classmates or university personnel.” The Homeland Security Department also demands Harvard say “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.” “Failure to comply with this Student Records Request will be treated as a voluntary withdrawal (from SEVP),” the letter states. Harvard has 9,970 people in its international academic population, it says, with 6,793 international students comprising 27.2% of its enrollment in the 2024-25 academic year, university data shows. It was not immediately clear how many attend Harvard on F-1 visas that would be directly affected by the loss of SEVP certification or how quickly they would have to leave the school. Traditionally, international students at institutions that have lost their SEVP certification are given time to try to transfer to a different certified school before they must leave the country. Around 15,000 educational institutions in the US have SEVP certification. About 200 institutions lose their certification each year – in many cases because they go out of business – according to an ICE fact sheet. The potential economic hit to Harvard if it loses thousands of students is noted in Noem’s letter, which says the school “relies heavily on foreign student funding … to build and maintain their substantial endowment.” Harvard “will continue to comply with the law and expect the Administration to do the same,” its spokesperson’s Wednesday statement said. “If federal action is taken against a member of our community, we expect it will be based on clear evidence, follow established legal procedures, and respect the constitutional rights afforded to all individuals.” This story has been updated with additional information. CNN’s Gloria Pazmino, Lauren Mascarenhas and Nicki Brown contributed to this report.