Trump admin blocks Harvard from the enrollment of international students and escalating radical struggles

Harvard University was exposed to unprecedented and radical offensive by Donald Trump and his team, which has so far concentrated on the elimination of federal grants to school and at the same time aimed at Harvard's tax exemption status.

However, there is a third element of the offensive. The New York Times reported:

Kristi Noem, secretary of the homeland protection authority, sent a letter to the university, which she later published on Thursday: “I write to tell you that the certification of the student and exchange visitor program of Harvard University will be revoked immediately.”

This development is exceptional, but does not appear out of the blue: in mid-April, while Harvard canceled almost $ 3 million to Harvard. The failure of the collaboration would endanger Harvard's certification from Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) – so that schools can take on international students.

Obviously, nobody has gone through this threat.

These developments are still new and unfold quickly and it is difficult to say with confidence what the recent step of the Trump administration will mean for international students who expect the drives to start in Harvard in autumn. NBC News also reported that the existing foreign students of the school have to switch to other schools or lose their legal status, although legal disputes in this matter could delay immediate measures “to remedy this.

The number of people concerned is not small. As my MSNBC colleague Zeeshan Aleem recently explained: “About a quarter of the university student body is strange”, which indicates that these development risks “change the institution”.

Noem's move will almost certainly trigger a court campaign, and if the recent history is a guide, the administration's lawyers should probably not take their hopes in hand.

“The action of the government is illegal,” the university replied in a written statement. “We are fully obliged to maintain Harvard's ability to align our international students and scientists who come from more than 140 countries and enrich the university – and this nation immeasurably.

If you step down, it is also worthwhile to appreciate the multifaceted larger context. On the one hand, Team Trump is leading an increasingly unusual political war against one of the most respected universities in the world, at least partially because Harvard has not succumbed to a ridiculous list of the White House requirements.

On the other hand, these developments reflect a broader campaign by the Trump administration against university formation, which are particularly aimed at some of the most famous universities in the country.

But there is also the underestimated point that there is an obvious assumption in this white house that the acceptance of international students at American universities and universities is unclear. In March, JD Vance said as numerous: Foreign students from the US universities are “not only bad for national security,” said the Vice President, but also “bad for the American dream, for American children who want to go to a nice university, but not because their space was taken by a foreign student”.

This makes traditional American thinking upside down. The United States has long welcomed many of the best students in the world, partly because of what they contribute to this country, and partly because they often bring our lessons and values ​​home to improve their own countries.

As the editorial board of the Washington Post recently summarized: “By squeezing like the efforts, Trump weakens America's global leadership.”