Trump Administration Ordinance Harvard University’s SEVIS Certification
In a legal showdown with Harvard, the Trump administration has faced recent threats to prevent private institutions from receiving international students.
The move was first reported on Thursday afternoon The New York TimesLater, DHS Kristi Noem announced on social media.
“This administration is holding Harvard responsible for promoting violence, anti-Semitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus. Universities have the privilege, not the right, because universities have the ability to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition fees to help their billions of dollars in donations,” Noem wrote in the announcement. “Harvard has a lot of opportunities to do the right thing. It refuses.”
(While much of the federal government’s recent focus on Harvard University has involved what the university calls unresolved campus anti-Semitism, the Trump administration has also raised questions about foreign researchers, especially those with links to the Chinese and Iranian governments.)
In her statement, Neum wrote that Harvard’s student exchange and visitor information system certification “due to failure to comply with the law,” she said she should “warn all U.S. universities”
Current international students will be required to transfer to maintain their visa status.
Norm added that if Harvard will “want to regain the opportunity to get a Sevis certification “before the upcoming school year”, the necessary records will need to be handed over within 72 hours.
A Harvard University spokesman said in an emailed statement that the action was “illegal”.
“We are fully committed to upholding Harvard’s ability to host international students and scholars from over 140 countries and enrich the university and this country – possible,” the spokesperson wrote. “This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country and undermines the academic and research missions of Harvard.”
Impact on Harvard
According to university data, Harvard University enrolls 6,793 international students. International students account for about a quarter of Harvard’s number over the past decade, and if the Trump administration’s instructions hold, it could disappear the population as well as a large amount of tuition fees.
Noem will revoke Harvard’s SEVIS certification last month after the federal government demands to revoke “detailed records of illegal and violent activities by Harvard foreign student visa holders” by April 30. “This is the threat after Harvard refused to approve a massive revision of its governance, admissions and recruitment procedures and more to address allegations of anti-Semitic conduct. The university subsequently sued the Trump administration for federal funding freezes and other recent actions.
The revocation of Harvard’s SEVIS certification was the second punch the government threw at college this week after the Department of Health and Human Services announced the termination of a $60 million multi-year federal grant, which officials attributed to concerns about anti-Semitism on campus.
Other sources of federal funds have also been put on hold. Overall, the Trump administration has frozen at least $2.7 billion to private universities, accounting for about one-third of Harvard’s federal funding.
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The process of student communication and visitor planning to revoke the university’s SEVIS identity is often an extended and complex bureaucratic matter, usually before a thorough investigation of the institution and the possibility of appeal.
Sarah Spreitzer, vice president and chief of government relations, told U.S. Board of Education Internal Advanced ED The federal government has deprived Harvard of certification is unprecedented.
“In a normal world, Harvard should actually notify their SEVIS certification being revoked and then there is an appeal process,” Spreezer said. “It does not seem to follow any conventional requirements in the statute for taking this action.”
In late March, Trump officials first proposed to revoke Sevis status from institutions, who believe they believe they have nurtured anti-Semitism on campus, and their threats are targeting Columbia and the University of California, Los Angeles, which are the site of Pro-Palestinian protests in mid-2024.
AIRC Director Clay Harmon: International Admissions Management Association tells Internal Advanced ED Historically, in March, when universities suspected of offering lower than basic degree programs, a SEVP survey was conducted, using dark courses as a way to essentially sell student visas to potential immigrants who want to quickly enter the country.
“This is the primary way the government ensures that international student visas are not granted, and these diploma factories, forged institutions or institutions are not financially supported enough,” Harmon said. “I have never heard of a well-known institution that fully acknowledged (whether Columbia or Bunker Hill Community College) who has received some sort of extraordinary SEVP survey outside the standard re-accreditation process.”
Harmon added that the initial certification process was intensive and could take months or even longer to complete, which is one of the reasons why deprivation is so rare. He said that using the oversight of the organization as a tool for leverage in a larger political battle would be “a big difference from past practices and established precedents.”
“It is clear that the government is proposing new interpretations of laws and powers that have not been established through case law or conventional practice,” Harmon said.
Send to Internal Advanced ED Harmon said Thursday that the administration’s decision to use anatomy targeting Harvard “for reasons outside of control and not related to their own behavior, has caused real, direct and significant harm to thousands of students.”
“This action could have a broad and long-term negative impact on the educational experience and financial health of U.S. institutions, far beyond Harvard and far beyond 2025,” he wrote.
The revocation of Harvard SEVIS certification prompted a sharp response online.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the U.S. Immigration Commission, wrote on social media that Neum’s actions could be “illegal” and that her letter showed no evidence of Harvard’s violation.
“There is no provision here for specific acts that violate the student and exchange visitor programs. No law violates the law, no regulations, no policy ignores,” Reichlin-Melnick wrote. “I don’t care what you think of Harvard; it’s an obvious weaponization of the government.”
Will Creeley, legal director of the Foundation for Personal Rights and Speech, said the government was “retaliatory and illegal” to revoke Harvard’s ability to host international students.
In a statement released on X, he attacked the education department’s demand that Harvard University hand over footage of international students protesting on campus to the Department of Education.
“This grand fishing expeditioner expressed a protected expression that must be frankly rejected,” Kreeley wrote. “The government’s need for Harvard’s surveillance status is a disgust for American freedom…this must stop.”
But some officials at Camp Maga celebrated the move.
“This is an extraordinary first step,” Florida Republican Senator Ashley Moody wrote on X.
