It’s bad for the innocent students who will be inconvenienced if the federal government is allowed to proceed. But there’s no reason that the government or taxpayers should help fund antisemitic policies, including acceptance of violent harassment of Jewish students; or help fund pro–Chinese Communist Party activities, including espionage, intellectual property theft, harassment of Chinese nationals in the United States, and persecution of the Uyghurs in China.
In general, the federal government should not be funding higher education anyway. But that vast entanglement is unlikely to be unwound anytime soon. Depriving at least the worst academic malefactors, or at least one of them, of our tax-extracted money and foreign money is a reasonable if inadequate beginning.
Headwinds for Harvard
The House Select Committee on the CCP recently demanded answers from Harvard “Over Ties to Chinese Military, Sanctioned Entities, and Iranian Government.” Such letters of demand, no matter how hortatory or well-documented, tend to go unanswered. The CEOs, university presidents, and others who receive them probably often say “Oh dear, a harsh letter,” and round-file it. Being public, the letters are attended by bad publicity, but the bad publicity has to reach a certain pitch before complicit institutions rouse themselves to act or pretend to act.
Harvard has had more to cope with in recent weeks than harsh letters or bad publicity, however.
Last month, the Department of Homeland Security threatened “to pull Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign students if the Ivy League institution does not comply with an extensive record request by April 30” (Higher Ed Dive, April 17, 2025). President Trump also threatened Harvard’s tax-exempt status and all of its federal funding “just days after the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force announced it was freezing over $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts to Harvard.”
Now the Trump administration has banned Harvard from admitting foreign students. Currently matriculating students will also be affected if the action is not permanently blocked.
The wrongdoing
According to a statement by Homeland Security, “Harvard is being held accountable for collaboration with the CCP, fostering violence, antisemitism, and pro-terrorist conduct from students on its campus” (“Harvard University Loses Student and Exchange Visitor Program Certification for Pro-Terrorist Conduct,” May 22, 2025).
Today, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered DHS to terminate the Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification.
This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status.
Harvard’s leadership has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment. Many of these agitators are foreign students. Harvard’s leadership further facilitated and engaged in coordinated activity with the CCP, including hosting and training members of a CCP paramilitary group complicit in the Uyghur genocide.
“This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” said Secretary Noem. “It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused. They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.”
Harvard has been granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the prohibition from taking immediate effect.
