Trump signs proclamation to suspend visas for new Harvard international students
By Emma Tucker, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump signed a proclamation to suspend international visas for new students at Harvard University, the White House announced Wednesday, in a dramatic escalation of its efforts to block foreigners from enrolling at the elite university.
The proclamation suspends the entry of any new Harvard student as a nonimmigrant under F, M, or J visas into the United States and “directs the Secretary of State to consider revoking existing F, M, or J visas for current Harvard students who meet the Proclamation’s criteria,” the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.
The White House said the move is an attempt to “safeguard national security,” accusing Harvard of having “concerning foreign ties.” The announcement also cited the university’s alleged failure to “provide sufficient information” about foreign students and “reporting deficient data on only three students.”
CNN has reached out to Harvard University for comment.
“Harvard is either not fully reporting its disciplinary records for foreign students or is not seriously policing its foreign students,” the White House said. It also accused the Ivy League of failing to address antisemitism on campus as well as its persistence in “prioritizing” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
The move comes after US District Court Judge Allison Burroughs last week ordered the Trump administration to not make any changes to Harvard’s international student visa program indefinitely. The order came days after the judge temporarily halted the administration’s revocation of the university’s ability to enroll foreign students.
The court proceedings stemmed from a directive from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to her agency, ordering the termination of Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, citing the university’s refusal to turn over the conduct records of foreign students requested by the DHS in April.
Harvard has accused the government of failing to follow its own requirements for removing a university from the SEVP program and argued the revocation was “clear retaliation” for its refusal of the government’s ideologically rooted policy demands.
Harvard and Trump officials have been locked in conflict for months as the administration demands the university make changes to campus programming, policies, hiring and admissions to root out on-campus antisemitism and eliminate what it calls “racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ practices.”
The White House has homed in on foreign students and staff it believes participated in contentious campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
Trump’s new proclamation “exempts aliens whose entry is deemed in the national interest” and does not apply to aliens attending other US universities through the SEVP program.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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CNN’s Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report.
