US internal security secretary Kristi Noem threatened Harvard university to enroll international students if the institution does not deliver records of “illegal and violent activities” from students from other countries, the agency said on Wednesday (16).
Noem “wrote a blunt letter requiring detailed records of illegal and violent activities from Harvard foreign student visa patients until April 30, 2025, under penalty of immediately losing certification of the Student and Exchange Visitors Program (SEVP),” DHS said in a press release.
Certification allows universities to issue forms to admitted international students, which they can use to request entry visas in the United States, according to DHS.
With 6,793 international students attending Harvard, they represent 27.2% of their enrollment in the 2024-25 school year, according to university data.
DHS also announced on Wednesday the cancellation of two federal scholarships worth.
A CNN contacted DHS for more information.
A Harvard spokesman stated in a statement that the university is aware of the letter, but maintains its previous statement that “it will not give up its independence or its constitutional rights.”
“We will continue to comply with the law and hope that the administration will do the same,” the statement said.
“If a federal action is taken against a member of our community, we hope it will be based on clear evidence, follow the established legal procedures and respect the constitutional rights guaranteed to all individuals,” he concluded.
The DHS letter accuses Harvard of creating a “” Jewish students, according to the student newspaper The Harvard Crimson. THE CNN is working to get a copy of the letter.
“It is a privilege to have foreign students attending Harvard University, not a guarantee,” says the letter, according to the school newspaper.
The letter requests that the university provides information on “threats known to other university students or employees” by visa carriers, “obstruction of the school’s learning environment” and any disciplinary measures “taken as a result of threats to other students or populations or participation in protests,” said The Crimson newspaper.
This occurs after the Trump government freezes more than and multi -annual contracts at Harvard University after its leaders refuse to make important political changes that the White House also requires other US elite faculties.
Harvard refused to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, to prohibit the use of masks in campus protests, promulgate reform and admission reforms based on merit and reduce the power of, which the Republican government called “more committed to activism than to academic knowledge”.
Trump officials claim that White House demands aim to combat anti -Semitism after contentious campus protests in response to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The government has also taken measures for students, teachers and researchers in dozens of US universities and colleges.
Some are cases of great repercussion involving alleged support for terrorist organizations, while others involve relatively lower offenses, such as crimes committed for years.
