close
close

International Harvard students describe the fear after the administration of Trump has moved to revoke their enrollment



Cnn

International Harvard students say that in the middle of the Trump administration's move to the enrollment of foreign enrollment of “pure panic” they experience how students from all over the world are able to get a grip on the possibility of revocable visas, suspended research and from the re -entry to the United States in the USA if they leave this summer.

A federal judge temporarily hired the Trump government's ban on Friday after the nation's oldest and richest college had filed a lawsuit before a federal court. Harvard argued that the revocation of his certification in the student and exchange visitor program for the rejection of the ideologically rooted political requirements of the government was a “clear retaliation”.

But thousands of international students stay in the suspension and are “very clear, extremely afraid” because they do not know their current legal status, said Harvard Student Body Co-President Abdullah Shahid Sial, who comes from Lahore, Pakistan, CNN.

“They literally like teenagers, thousands of miles away from their hometowns who have to deal with this situation.

About 27% of Harvard's student body are internationally, with 6,793 international students and students who come from almost every country in the world.

“Harvard is Harvard because it has the ability to win people – the best people – from all over the world, not only in the United States,” Sial told CNN on Friday. “The United States also benefits greatly from having and studying the best in the world. And then they became dehuman and disregarded.”

Sial said that the university and the deans were helpful to support international students in a time of uncertainty and the “pure panic”, the days after the end of the final exams and only one week before the end.

As President of the student body, he is working to encourage the university to support international students who also want to switch to other universities and want to urge the students' financial aid packages to transfer students. The window to switch to other universities for the autumn semester is already closed at most universities, said Sial.

“Many of us have worked at a university like Harvard all our lives, and now we have to wait and see whether we may have to have difficulties with visas,” says emerging junior Karl Molden from Austria.

Molden, who also travels abroad and is concerned that he should not return to campus, said that he was using international students as a “ball in this greater struggle between democracy and authoritarianism”.

Jared, an 18-year-old in New Zealand, was just started in Harvard and had planned to start student studies at Ivy League School in autumn. He told CNN that it was a “heart drop” moment when he learned about the announcement of the Trump government -which prepared himself in the middle of the application for his student visa and the preparation of the 9,000 miles for Boston.

Harvard and Trump officials are locked in conflicts for months because the administration demands that the university make changes to campus programs, guidelines, attitudes and approvals to find out what the white house has called anti -Semitism and “racist” practices.

Like many other universities and universities last year, Harvard criticized intensive criticism of pro-Palestinian protests last year and criticized the start of the Israel Hamas War as well as complaints from Jewish alumni and students about anti-Semitism on campus.

Harvard has recognized anti -Semitism on his campus, especially in the past academic year, and explained that he had started to take concrete measures to remedy it.

An Israeli postdoctoral student who studies in Harvard said that she had the feeling that Jewish students were “used by the Trump administration” as farmers that accused the university of maintaining an uncertain campus environment that “committed Jewish students for Jewish students” and “racist diversity, justice and justice and Inclusion practices begins ”.

The Israeli student, who did not want to refuse to re -enter the United States for fear, said the Trump government “used” the university to “have this struggle with science that is much greater than Harvard”.

She said that the government had been reflected in ideas that “do not always match the administration instead of having an actual concern for the security of Jewish students, Israeli students”.

“So I have the feeling that we are being used,” she said, adding that she believes that the management of the university is Take the topic of anti -Semitism seriously on campus. “I don't want to reduce the experience of someone at the university. I know that people have had difficult experiences, but I have the feeling that I personally have 100% trust and trust in our leadership.”

Another Israeli master student who studies in Harvard, who wanted to remain anonymous due to concerns about the public effects on her studies, told CNN that it was “very important for Israelis and Jewish people to come here, and still very strong in what they believe in … and not only in Harvard, I would say more than Evers in the American academies and in the American campus.

A doctoral student from Australia who spoke about the condition of anonymity because they feared that they will be denied future USVISA, said CNN that it is “extraordinary that all of us will be punished for campus activism, since researchers and doctoral students often do not have the time or interest in getting involved.

“As a doctoral student, we are only fully busy with our research work, which I would say I spend 80 to 100 hours a week,” said the Australian student, adding that the showdown between the Trump administration and Harvard will probably lead to researchers. “If things really hit the fan, I would probably try to switch to a school in Great Britain.”

Other doctoral students said that they also feel fear and uncertainty, with concerns about their research work, their future careers and their relatives.

“There are the consequences for your family, you know, spouse, your children, your enrollment, your work status, your rent, living space, everything,” said Fangzhou Jiang, 30, from China. He is a student of Harvard Kennedy School who goes to his second year of a master's program. “You just don't know what's going to happen.”

Harvard students listen to Freedome for Freedom Center Plaza on April 29 during a rally for Freedome for Freedom Center.

Against the deportation from the USA and retaliation at home

For some international students, such as those from war countries or with political turbulence, the missions are even higher.

Maria Kuznetsova, former spokeswoman for OVD-Info, a Russian independent human rights surveillance group, is currently a doctoral student of Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She graduated in a week and planned to work on a visa sponsored by Harvard that had already been granted, but she fears that it could be canceled now.

“I used to work in Russian human rights and in the opposition, which means that I can't return to Russia,” Kuznetsova told CNN. “And since I've been living in the USA for two years, I don't even have a European visa. So I don't really know where I could go geographically if things go wrong.”

“As far as I can see, people are still in panic – everyone is waiting for the court's decision,” said Kuznetsova.

“It is not only me from Russia here – there are also many Ukrainians, many political students from Venezuela and people from Afghanistan and Palestine. I even have a classmate from North Korea. These are people who can literally not return to their home countries,” she added.

Ivan Bogantsev, also from Russia, planned to stay in the United States after his program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His wife, currently in Russia and also on a visa sponsored by Harvard, should arrive at his conclusion, but he is not sure whether she is allowed to enter.

“Nobody seems to explain whether we are exposed to the risk of deportation or not,” Bogantsev told CNN. “I think a Brain outflow from this country is absolutely guaranteed. I cannot say to what extent, but the environment here is extremely unfriendly.”

But he said to go back to Russia is not an option that he is considering.

“I was arrested in rallies (in Russia), and let's just say that the atmosphere was increasingly tense. And secondly, most of my friends are essentially (in Russia) as criminals, traitors or foreign agents.”

Leo Gerdén from Sweden, who is supposed to graduate next week, told CNN that some of his friends in Harvard “make new plans for the broadcasts, in particular to other institutions abroad”.

“I was looking forward to celebrating the start next week, but now I could leave this place and it will not look the same in the next semester, because without these international students and its international researchers the Harvard campus will not be the same,” said Gerdén.

“We are essentially used as poker chips in a struggle between the White House and Harvard, and frankly it feels very dehuman.”

Katelyn Polantz, Helen Regan, Todd Symons and Isa Soares contributed to this report.

Leave a Comment