The Harvard Bubble burst with one announcement by the Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem that no fresh overseas students could enrol in the prestigious university from where many intellectuals and academicians and political leaders from across the globe had passed out.
Harvard had been under fire from the Trump Administration for fomenting so called antisemitism and protests on its campus. The Republicans had taken exception to that in its campaign for the presidency. And after Trump walked into the White House for a second term, his administration sent notices through Kristi Noem’s Ministry Of Homeland Security that its ability to enroll foreign students had been terminated, unless it furnished a list of those students on its campus who were involved in the antisemitism protests.
This came on top of Trump administration cancelling a whopping $2 billion of government funding to the institution with the same demand.
As it added insult to injury, the Harvard university stood its ground and took a stand of noncompliance on Trump’s order as it infringed on their first amendment rights.
Harvard refused to budge and said it cherished its autonomy and did not like the presidential office interfering in its internal affairs. When the Gaza war was at its peak during the Biden presidency, the student protested the alleged atrocities of the Israel government against Palestinians trapped in the narrow enclave, it had burst on the scene and spread like a prairie fire across all university campuses.
The students’ protests did not see Red or Blue but only black and blue being inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza, any political shift or heft, but was directed against the US government’s inability to rein in the unbridled assault on Palestinians, which was countered by Jewish students leading to clashes on many campuses. The protest was against the Biden government’s failure to stop the alleged genocide in Gaza. The continued military supplies to Israel and this was one of the factors that led to the erasure of the Arab vote bank for the Democrats and a swing towards the Republicans as Trump promised to end the war, as he is still struggling to find a solution to both Gaza and Ukraine, as in the meanwhile a third theatre of war ensued in the Indian sub-continent.
Even as the democrats failed to check the student protest, the Trump administration after being sworn into office swung into action. It attacked Harvard, Columbia university, among others.
Harvard called the new policy “pernicious” and accused the Trump administration of departing from “decades of settled practice and come without rational explanation.” It claimed the policy was “carried out abruptly without any of the robust procedures the government has established to prevent just this type of upheaval to thousands of students’ lives.”
The latest strike by Kristi Noem came as the last straw on the camel’s back. Harvard would still not budge and instead went to court in appeal saying 7,000 foreign students would lose their VISA, while government had asked all those registered to seek admission in alternate universities.
Harvard is Harvard and there was much reluctance on the part of students and as they whined, and Trump officials wined, Harvard did not take it lying down. A judge blocked the Trump Executive Order, and the students could stay on until the pendency of the case by the court.
The Judge temporarily paused Trump’s move to cancel Harvard student visa policy after lawsuit. Harvard claimed in its lawsuit that the policy will affect more than 7,000 visa holders.
Fox News reported the court had temporarily paused the Trump administration’s move to cancel Harvard’s student visa program. Harvard filed the suit against the Trump administration over the policy, and a judge granted its request for a temporary restraining order to preserve status quo while the case plays out in court.
Judge Allison Burroughs, a 2014 Obama appointee, set a hearing for 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday in Boston federal court.
Analysist clarified some reasons Why Trump is after the life of Harvard University
The possible reasons for Trump taking it out on Harvard is personal and not political.
1) Trump reportedly hates the pritzker family.
Why
The Pritzker siblings have been a thorn under his collar.one Pritzker owns Harvard and the other John Pritzker is the governor of Illinois a blue state in the midwest which is largely red territory.
2) It would appear the Pritzker family took Trump for a ride when he was in the real estate business on a deal even before his affiliation with the Republican party started.
3) Trump has an elephant’s memory and he reportedly schemed to hit back at the Pritzker family.
4) if you cut off funding and derecognise their ability to enrol foreign students then Harvard loses out on endowments made by billionaires outside the USA to the university — especially the Chinese and indians.
5) India’s Mukesh Ambani makes substantial donations to Harvard.
6) If Indian students cannot enrol in Harvard, people like Ambanis will think twice before they make donations to the university.
Harvard said the policy will affect more than 7,000 visa holders — nearly a quarter of the student body — and is a “blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act,” per its court filing.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) moved to terminate the program after Harvard allegedly failed to provide it with the extensive behavioural records of student visa holders the department requested. DHS offered Harvard 72 hours on Thursday to come into compliance with the request and re-enter into the visa program.
As of now, Harvard may no longer enrol foreign students in the 2025–2026 school year, and existing foreign students must transfer to other universities or lose their legal status to reside in the U.S. before the next academic year begins. Most of the students in this program in Harvard are from India and China.
It’s not clear if the Modi government in India or the Xi Jinping regime in China will interfere in this matter and make an appeal to Trump to revoke the order in the interests of the student’s future. Not likely, say diplomats, it’s an internal matter of the US.
University President Alan Garber said a motion for a temporary restraining order to put the policy on pause while their court case against it plays out would be filed next. Along with the students a lot of professors in Harvard would lose their jobs inducted into the overseas students’ program. The numbers are not clearly known now.
“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the “ideology” of its faculty and students,” Harvard wrote in its complaint.
The records requested include any footage of protest activity involving students on visas and the disciplinary records of all students on visas in the past five years.
Requested records also include footage or documentation of illegal, dangerous or violent activity by student visa holders, any records of threats or the deprivation of rights of other students or university personnel.
Harvard called the new policy “pernicious” and accused the Trump administration of departing from “decades of settled practice and come without rational explanation.” It claimed the policy was “carried out abruptly without any of the robust procedures the government has established to prevent just this type of upheaval to thousands of students’ lives.”
“Consequences must follow to send a clear signal to Harvard and all universities that want to enjoy the privilege of enrolling foreign students, that the Trump administration will enforce the law and root out the evils of antisemitism in society and campuses,” said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in response to the suit, “This lawsuit seeks to kneecap the President’s constitutionally vested powers under Article II.”
“It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enrol foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,” she said. “The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system; no lawsuit, this or any other, is going to change that.”
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on Thursday that in April, she requested the records related to visa-holding students, and Harvard’s counsel did not provide adequate information to meet the demand.
After the DHS general counsel asked again for the information, Harvard provided an “insufficient, incomplete and unacceptable response,” she said.
“Consequences must follow to send a clear signal to Harvard and all universities that want to enjoy the privilege of enrolling foreign students, that the Trump administration will enforce the law and root out the evils of antisemitism in society and campuses,” said Noem.
In April, Harvard took action to prepare for the potential of the drastic policy change, announcing it would allow foreign students to accept admission to both Harvard and a foreign university as backup amid the Trump administration’s threats to move to block Harvard’s authorization to host them. Typically, students must accept enrolment at Harvard by 1st May and cannot commit to another university.
At least a dozen Harvard students have had their authorization to study in the U.S. revoked over campus protest activity. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday told Congress the administration has probably revoked “thousands” of student visas by this point and would “proudly” revoke more.
It is the latest development in the brewing battle between the Trump administration and some of the nation’s most prestigious universities. The administration has already frozen close to $3 billion in federal funding to the university, largely dedicated to research, and launched investigations across the departments of Justice, Education and Health and Human Services. They claim Harvard has not adequately responded to campus antisemitism in protests or moved to root out diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
Fox News Digital compiled a list of the groups, state attorneys general, cities or states, and individuals who have launched lawsuits against the Trump administration’s executive actions. The list includes the various groups and individuals challenging the Trump administration in court, as well as the executive order or proclamation that sparked the suit.
Amid the flurry of lawsuits against Trump and his administration, Democratic elected officials and government employees have spoken out against the orders and the Trump agenda overall.
Democrats and government employees have also staged protests as the Department of Government Efficiency investigates various federal agencies as part of its mission to cut government overspending and weed out corruption and mismanagement of taxpayer funds. Just roughly three weeks back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump’s administration has been hit with at least 50 lawsuits working to resist his policies.
“That’s not acceptable,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., declared in January. “We are going to fight it legislatively. We are going to fight it in the courts. We’re going to fight it in the streets.”
Trump administration begins new wave of international student visa revocations: ‘No one has a right to a visa.’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said student visas are being revoked ‘every day.’
The Trump administration has begun a new wave of visa revocations for international students studying at American universities.
Universities across America said over the weekend that the visas of several international students were revoked. It’s unclear if the visa revocations are associated with anti-Israel actions by the affected international students.
The most recent wave of visa revocations impacted international students at Harvard University, University of Michigan, Stanford University, University of California, Los Angeles, Ohio State University and more.
At Harvard University, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked the visas of three graduate students and two recent graduates.
The visa revocations were discovered during a “routine records review,” according to The Harvard Crimson. Most impacted institutions also learned that student visas had been revoked during a review of records and weren’t contacted by DHS.
“We are not aware of the details of the revocations or the reasons for them, but we understand that comparable numbers of students and scholars in institutions across the country have experienced similar status changes in roughly the same timeframe,” the Harvard International Office wrote in an email to students.
Four University of Michigan students also had their visas taken away by DHS on Friday. One of those students has left the country, according to the Detroit Free Press. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on March 28 that student visas are being revoked “every day.” “I would argue that the – what I would add to it is what we have seen on campuses across the country where students literally cannot go to school, you cannot – buildings are being taken over, activities going on – this is clearly an organized movement,” Rubio said. “And if you are in this country on a student visa and are a participant in those movements, we have a right to deny your visa. I think it would make sense to deny your visa. We’re going to err on the side of caution. We are not going to be importing activists into the United States.
“I think it’s lunacy to continue to allow that,” he continued
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