On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a Proclamation suspending entry of foreign nationals seeking to study or participate in exchange programs at Harvard University.
This was done in an effort to safeguard national security after a federal judge blocked his May attempt to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students.
The Proclamation suspends the entry into the United States of any new Harvard student as a non-immigrant under F, M, or J visas, and it recommends the Secretary of State to consider the existing visas of the same classification for current Harvard students who meet the criteria.
Other universities in the U.S. are exempt from the Proclamation alongside their foreign exchange students.
The reason for this Proclamation has been Harvard’s repeated failure to provide sufficient information on crimes committed by its foreign students to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Trump noted that, “Harvard provided data on misconduct by only three [foreign] students, and the data it provided was so deficient that the DHS could not evaluate whether it should take further actions.”
The president and DHS have valid concerns about whether foreign exchange students may act against our nation’s interests.
These concerns aren’t just hypothetical, as on Tuesday, a Chinese foreign exchange student at the University of Michigan was detained for allegedly smuggling a pathogen into the U.S., which is one case that highlights the risks posed by inadequate oversight of foreign students.
Harvard faces similar issues, such as allegedly hosting and training a CCP paramilitary group complicit in the Uyghur genocide, with interactions with the group as recent as 2024.
Harvard researchers have also allegedly partnered with Chinese universities on projects funded by an Iranian government agent. The projects were tied to Chinese military advancements, including aerospace and optics.
Additionally, crime rates at the university increased by 55 percent from 2022 to 2023, with hate crimes increasing by 100%, aggravated assaults increasing by 195%, and robberies increasing by 460%.
Despite the very clear concerns of foreign students and crime, Harvard has been unwilling to comply with the president’s request, leading to this turn of events.
“Harvard’s actions show that it either is not fully reporting its disciplinary records for foreign students or is not seriously policing its foreign students,” Trump relayed. ” In my judgment, these actions and failures directly undermine the Federal Government’s ability to ensure that foreign nationals admitted on student or exchange visitor visas remain in compliance with Federal law.”