Trump administration threatens Harvard's foreign enrolment, tax-exempt status

Thomson Reuters

· Posted: Apr 17, 2025 10:28 AM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Harvard University will lose its ability to enrol foreign students if it does not meet demands from the Trump administration to share information on some visa holders, marking the government's latest escalation against the educational institution.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also announced on Wednesday the termination of two DHS grants totalling more than $2.7 million US to Harvard.

Noem said she wrote a letter to Harvard demanding records on what she called the "illegal and violent activities" of Harvard's foreign student visa holders by April 30.

"And if Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students," Noem said in a statement.

A Harvard spokesperson said the university was aware of Noem's letter "regarding grant cancellations and scrutiny of foreign student visas."

The spokesperson said the university stood by its statement earlier in the week to "not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights" while saying it will comply with the law.

Conflict over protest activity

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has threatened universities with federal funding cuts over pro-Palestinian campus protests against U.S. ally Israel's devastating military assault on Gaza after a deadly October 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants.

Trump casts the protesters as foreign policy threats who are antisemitic and sympathetic to Hamas. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the Trump administration wrongly conflates their advocacy for Palestinian rights and criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza with support for extremism and antisemitism.

WATCH | Debunking some campus protest claims (2024):

The Trump administration is also attempting to deport some foreign protesters and has revoked hundreds of visas across the country.

Harvard has previously said it worked to fight antisemitism and other prejudice on its campus while preserving academic freedoms and the right to protest.

The Trump administration said late last month it was reviewing $9 billion US in federal contracts and grants to Harvard and later called for restrictions — including a mask ban and removal of diversity, equity and inclusion programs — to be put in place for the university to continue receiving federal money.

Harvard on Monday rejected numerous demands that it said would cede control to the government. The Trump administration subsequently said it was freezing $2.3 billion US in funding.

Trump also threatened on Tuesday to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status. CNN reported on Wednesday the U.S. Internal Revenue Service was making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of Harvard and that a final decision was expected soon.

Harvard said there was no legal basis to rescind its tax-exempt status, saying such an action will be unprecedented, will diminish its financial aid for students and will lead to abandonment of some critical medical research programs.

Researchers feel the pinch

Since the end of the Second World War, the government has identified strategic areas of research in public health, military or other areas. Researchers then respond by proposing projects, of which less than the top 10 per cent may receive federal funding. 

For decades, universities have provided infrastructure and administration for these joint projects. The researchers are most often independent of the colleges, with no teaching duties or connections to the student politics that have riled universities' relationships with the federal government.

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Harvard scientist Dr. Donald Ingber, who works where medicine and engineering meet, told Reuters he has seen two government research contracts worth over $20 million US halted since the Trump administration announced its $2.3 billion funding freeze.

According to Ingber, one focused on assessing and developing drugs to combat radiation damage in humans. The work can be the basis for drugs to help cancer patients cope with the side effects of radiation therapy, and it could be used to protect soldiers and civilians alike in the case of nuclear war or during a nuclear plant explosion.

Ingber also said he knows of post-doc applicants who are now turning down research positions in the U.S. that they had accepted because they are afraid to live in the U.S. as foreigners. They are turning to China or Europe to carry out their work.

"We were the magnet for the best young scientists around the world to come and pursue innovation," Ingber said.

WATCH | Columbia student fights deportation order:

White House spokesperson Kush Desai said that the funding freeze on Harvard and Columbia "is motivated by one thing and one thing only: tackling antisemitism."

"Antisemitic protestors inflicting violence and taking over entire college campus buildings is not only a crude display of bigotry against Jewish Americans, but entirely disruptive to the intellectual inquiry and research that federal funding of colleges is meant to support," Desai said.

Human rights advocates have raised free speech and academic freedom concerns over the crackdown by the government.

The Trump administration has also frozen or cancelled some funding for universities like Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Cornell and Northwestern.