Trump demands info on Harvard’s international students
President Donald Trump said he wants the “names and countries” of every international student enrolled at Harvard University, another step in his crackdown on the Ivy League school.
He made the request in a Truth Social post May 25, days after a federal judge blocked his administration’s effort to bar the university from enrolling anyone in the United States on a student visa.
“We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming,” Trump wrote. “We want those names and countries.”
READ ALSO: Trump administration blocks Harvard from enrolling foreign students
Trump didn’t immediately say how the federal government would use that information, or which part of his administration would manage such lists. USA TODAY has reached out to the White House for more information.
Trump’s post comes after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent a letter to Harvard leaders saying the university’s participation in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program would be terminated “effective immediately.” That’s a critical prerequisite for colleges and universities to enroll international students.
All international students would need to transfer to another university to stay in the United States, she said.
Harvard then sued the administration, calling the move a “blatant violation” of the First Amendment’s protections, as well as the 14th Amendment’s guarantees of due process and other legal rights. Judge Allison Burroughs, appointed by former President Barack Obama, on May 23 sided with the school in a temporary order.
She wrote in her decision that the policy would bring “immediate and irreparable injury” to Harvard’s campus.
It’s the third such attack to sputter and falter in the first few months of Trump’s term. The president raged against the school on his personal social media platform overnight.
“Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31% of their students are from FOREIGN LANDS, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay NOTHING toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to,” he wrote. “Nobody told us that!”
Elite universities, Harvard included, have caught much of Trump’s ire during his second administration. Federal agencies under his direction have zeroed in on schools they allege aren’t protecting Jewish students from antisemitism, in addition to targeting diversity efforts on campuses across the country.
A new spending bill in Congress would also increase the tax wealthy private universities pay on the investment gains they make on their endowments.
A college endowment is a combination of charitable donations, gifts and investment income, and is used to further the work of a university and its programs.
Appearing to incorrectly reference Harvard’s roughly $53 billion endowment, Trump wrote on social media, “Harvard has $52,000,000, use it, and stop asking for the Federal Government to continue GRANTING money to you!”
Trump’s attacks on Harvard and the anti-immigrant tenor of his second term have left many current students wary of continuing their education at the prestigious school.
Speaking to CNN, Harvard student body co-president Abdullah Shahid Sial said that international students were “extremely afraid” of what the future holds.
“They’re literally like, teenagers, thousands of miles away from their hometowns having to deal with this situation, which lawyers often fear to engage in,” Sial said. “As of right now, I’m not sure if I can attend the next semester or not.”
