US signals it may back off immediate revocation in Harvard foreign students case

Harvard argues the Trump administration is retaliating against it for refusing to cede to its demands to control the school’s governance, curriculum and the “ideology” of its faculty and students.

The case before Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, was filed after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revoked the school’s SEVP certification.

In announcing the decision, Noem, without providing evidence, accused the university of “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.”

In a letter that day, she accused the school of refusing to comply with wide-ranging requests for information on its student visa holders, including about any activity they engaged in that was illegal or violent or that would subject them to discipline.

“As I explained to you in my April letter, it is a privilege to enroll foreign students, and it is also a privilege to employ aliens on campus,” she said.

Harvard said the decision was “devastating” for the school and its student body. The university, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest, enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, about 27 per cent of its total enrollment.

The department’s move would prevent Harvard from enrolling new international students and require existing ones to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that Harvard University should have a 15 per cent cap on the number of non-US students it admits. “Harvard has got to behave themselves,” he said.