Homeland Security has formally presented Harvard University with the reasons it’s being booted from the government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program, escalating the fight President Trump picked with the country’s oldest college.
The department said Harvard has failed to turn over documents about criminal entanglements of its foreign students, has let antisemitism flourish on its campus and has maintained iffy relationships with the Chinese, including having “hosted and trained” paramilitary figures “complicit in the Uyghur genocide.”
The formal notice, dated Thursday, gives Harvard 30 days to defend itself before losing access to the SEVP, which would mean the school could no longer host the foreign students who comprise a quarter of its student body.
It also says the Massachusetts college can voluntarily withdraw from the SEVP, then reapply if it chooses.
“Harvard’s refusal to comply with SEVP oversight was the latest evidence that it disdains the American people and takes for granted U.S. taxpayer benefits,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Ms. Noem announced last week that she was kicking Harvard out of the SEVP. The school quickly sued, and a judge has put that move on hold.
Government lawyers shared the new formal notice with the court.
Ms. Noem, in her public statement, said Harvard says it “now wishes to comply with SEVP standards.”
But she said DHS needs more substantive action.
“We continue to reject Harvard’s repeated pattern of endangering its students and spreading American hate — it must change its ways to be eligible to receive generous benefits from the American people,” Ms. Noem said.
Harvard says the administration is bullying the school as retaliation for its hiring and student admission practices.
The school has admitted to some antisemitism problems but says it’s taking steps to cool things on campus.
Homeland Security said any of the three violations it listed would be enough to lose status in the SEVP.
The allegations about Chinese connections include accusing school faculty of having “collaborated with China-based academics on projects funded by an Iranian government agent.”
