Harvard protest condemns DHS threat to revoke university's ability to enroll international students
Harvard students protested on campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts Thursday, a day after the Trump administration threatened to revoke the university's ability to enroll international students.
Dozens of demonstrators met on the steps of the Widener Library at noon. A flyer advertising the protest said "we have to fight" for international students.
Federal funding frozen
This comes just days after the administration froze more than $2 billion in federal funding after Harvard refused to agree to a list of demands, which included ending DEI programs, limiting campus protests and disciplining students who staged pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus last year. The IRS is also considering revoking Harvard's tax-exempt status.
Harvard is the first major university to openly defy the Trump administration's demands.
"Harvard will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. We continue to stand by that statement. We will continue to comply with the law and expect the Administration to do the same," the university said in a statement to CBS News.
DHS demands student records
The Department of Homeland Security is now threatening to revoke student visas if Harvard doesn't send detailed records on any foreign students' "illegal and violent" activities by the end of the month. According to school data, there are 6,793 international students enrolled at Harvard this year.
"It is so scary," said Leo Derden, a Harvard senior from Sweden. "I looked forward to the day of commencement for four years now. I hope I don't spend it at a detention center in Louisiana. If we give [Trump] five names, he's going to demand 100 more, so I think that this is a time we have to say no, this is enough."
Not all agree with Thursday's protest. Harvard Republican Club President Leo Koerner said he doesn't think defying the federal government is the right move.
"What the administration should do is see this as an opportunity to think seriously about the road it's going down and the policies it's made over the last 20 years, I'd say," said Koerner. "And to realize that a lot of the donors don't like them, a lot of the students won't say it, but they don't like them. I have a lot of friends who are international students, I don't want to see them go, I think that's sad. But if Harvard doesn't comply with federal law, that might happen. I hope they comply with federal law, it's sort of a protest and it's becoming so extreme that they're really going to hurt their reputation."
The DHS said, "if Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students."
The freeze on funding has already impacted programs and research at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health, including research into finding a cure for HIV/AIDS.
