The US Department of Education froze more than $2 billion in federal funding for Harvard University, just hours after the school rejected Donald Trump’s demands that it make deep policy changes on diversity.

A Department of Education task force on combating anti-Semitism said in a statement on Monday that it was freezing $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contract value to Harvard University.

The move escalates tensions between Trump’s administration and American universities it accuses of being captured by the extreme Left.

The Trump administration has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for numerous universities, pressing the institutions to make policy and other changes, citing what it says is a failure to fight anti-Semitism on campus.

Deportation proceedings have begun against some detained foreign students who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while visas for hundreds of other students have been cancelled.

The crackdown has raised concerns about speech and academic freedoms.

Harvard on Monday rejected the government’s demands to end diversity efforts in order to receive federal funding.

The university said if it yielded to the demands, it would stifle the intellectual freedoms of faculty and students.