Trump Administration Strips Harvards Sevis Certification

In the midst of an ongoing legal showdown with Harvard University, the Trump administration has recently driven the ability of the private institution to accommodate international students to hire the ability of private institution.

The move was reported for the first time on Thursday afternoon from The New York TimesSubsequently, Kristi Noem, secretary of home protection, announced on social media on social media.

“This administration is responsible for the promotion of violence, anti-Semitism and coordination with the Chinese party's Communist Party on their campus. It is a privilege to register no right for universities, foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition fees in order to block their multibillion dollar foundations,” wrote no announcements. “Harvard had many opportunities to do the right thing. It declined.”

(Although a large part of the Federal Government's most recent focus on Harvard has affected the alleged failure of the university to tackle anti -Semitism on campus, the Trump government has also raised questions about working with foreign researchers, in particular with the connections between the Chinese and the Iranian governments.)

In her explanation, Noem wrote that the certification of Harvard's exchange and visitor information system “due to her failure to capture the law,” should serve as a warning for all universities in the United States “.

Current international students would have to be transferred to maintain their visa status.

Noem added that Harvard would have to exceed the required records within 72 hours if “the possibility to regain the SeviS certification” before the upcoming school year.

A Harvard spokesman mentioned the campaign in an e -mail declaration as “illegal”.

“We are fully obliged to maintain Harvard's ability to align international students and scientists who come from more than 140 countries and have taken the university – and these nation -” wrote. “This retaliation measure threatens the severe damage to the Harvard community and our country and undermines Harvard's academic and research mission.”

Effects on Harvard

Harvard incorporated 6,793 international students last autumn last autumn last autumn. International students have invented about a quarter of Harvard's head Count in the past decade – a population that could disappear together with their significant tuition fees if the Trump government's guideline applies.

Noem threatened to revoke Harvard's SeviS certification last month after the university reduced the Federal Government's demand to “hand over detailed records about the illegal and violent activities of Harvard's foreign student visa until April 30”. This threat followed Harvard's refusal to overwork the demands, his government, approval, approvals and attitude processes, to overtake an anti -Semitic behavior in response to allegations. The university then sued the Trump administration for freezing the federal government and other recent measures.

The revocation of the SeviS certification of Harvard is the second blow that the government has thrown to the university this week after the Ministry of Health and Human Services had announced the termination of $ 60 million in multi -year federal grants, which was due to concerns regarding concerns regarding campus anti -Semitism.

Other sources of federal financing are on ice. In total, the Trump administration frozen at least 2.7 billion US dollars to private university or about a third of Harvard's federal funds.

A new political cudel

The process of the Student Exchange and Visitor Program for the revocation of the SeviS status of the universities is usually a longer and complicated bureaucratic matter, which is usually preceded by a thorough examination of the institution and the possibility of calling.

Sarah Spreezer, Vice President and Chief of Staff for Government Relationships at the American Council on Education, told In higher ED The way in which the Federal Government deprived Harvard's Sevis certification was unprecedented.

“In a normal world, Harvard should actually get an announcement that her Sevis certification will be revoked, and then there is an appeal procedure,” said Spreezer. “It does not seem that DHS meets the regular requirements that are included in the law for these measures.”

At the end of March, Trump officers proposed for the first time to revoke the Sevis status of institutions, of which they believed they were promoting anti-Semitism on campus, and aimed at their threats, especially in Columbia and the University of California in Los Angeles, in which they had a large pro-Palestine protest in 2024.

Clay Harmon, director of Airc: The Association of International Registration Management, told In higher ED In March that SEVP investigations are carried out in the past when universities are suspected of delivering less than the Bona Fide degree programs, the shady course work is used to sell student visa to potential immigrants who want to enter a quick path to the country.

“It is the main method of the government to ensure that international student visa for graduates, fake institutions or institutions that are not adequately supported are not granted,” said Harmon. “I have never heard of a fully accredited, reputable institution -whether it is the Columbia or the Bunker Hill Community College -that is exposed to a kind of extraordinary SEVP examination outside the standard recertification process.”

The initial process of certification, added Harmon, was intense and can take months or even longer before decertification is so rare. The organization's surveillance powers as an instrument for leverage in a greater political struggle are “a significant deviation from previous practices and established precedence cases”.

“It is clear that the administration presents new interpretations of laws and powers that have not been determined by case law or regular practice,” said Harmon.

In an e -mail In higher ED On Thursday, Harmon said that the administration's decision to use the decertification against Harvard, “thousands of students for reasons that have to do outside of their control and not with their own actions, imposed real, immediate and significant damage”.

“This action can have extensive and long-term negative effects-now beyond Harvard and far beyond 2025 beyond the educational experience and financial health of the US institutions,” he wrote.

The revocation of the Sevis certification by Harvard led to strong reactions online.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a high-ranking scholarship holder of the American Immigration Council, wrote on social media that Noem's actions are “probably illegal” and showed her letter no evidence of Harvard's violations.

“Nothing here claims a specific violation of the study and exchange visitor program. Nothing. It does not cite a law that was violated, no prescription broken, no directive ignores,” wrote Reichlin-Melnick. “I don't care what you think of Harvard. This is a clear weapon of the government.”

Will Creeley, legal director of the foundation for individual rights and expression, described the revocation of Harvard's ability to align international students as “retaliation and illegal”.

In an explanation of X, he reported the demands of the educational department that Harvard handed over film material from international students who protested on campus.

“This comprehensive fishing expedition reaches a protected expression and has to be rejected circular,” wrote Creeley. “The government's demand for a surveillance state in Harvard is an abomination for American freedom … that has to stop.”

But some officers in the Maga camp celebrated the move.

“This is a remarkable first step,” wrote the Republican Senator Ashley Moody from Florida about X.