Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday threatened to pull Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students if the Ivy League institution does not comply with an extensive record request by April 30. The agency also canceled $2.7 million in grants to the university.
- Earlier in the week, President Donald Trump reupped his calls for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status and all federal funding. This all comes just days after the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force announced it was freezing over $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts to Harvard.
- The federal onslaught follows Harvard’s refusal to comply with a list of unprecedented demands from the Trump administration, which university leadership called an overstep of authority — an assessment with which free speech and higher education experts have agreed.
Dive Insight:
The federal Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism first turned its attention on Harvard last month. The task force announced a review into $9 billion of the university's federal funding and claimed that Harvard has not done enough to protect Jewish students from harassment. However, it did not publicly cite specific incidents or allegations, and some free speech experts and Israeli academics argue the administration is weaponizing antisemitism concerns.
Days after announcing the review, federal officials delivered Harvard a laundry list of ultimatums, including changes to academic programming and “meaningful governance reforms." If the university complied, it had a chance — but no guarantee — to continue receiving federal funding, the task force said.
In response, Harvard became the first well-known institution to rebuke the Trump administration's demands. Alan Garber, president of Harvard, said the task force's desired oversight oversteps its authority and infringes on the university's constitutional rights.
"No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue," he said in a Monday statement.
Upon Garber's defiance, the task force froze billions of the university's federal funding and made further demands, including that it "audit the student body, faculty, staff, and leadership for viewpoint diversity."
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Harvard was "bending the knee to antisemitism" under "its spineless leadership."
The department is now demanding that the university hand over "detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities" by the end of the month or immediately lose its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification.
International students studying the U.S. cannot attend a college that is not SEVP approved.
The program has gained national attention in recent weeks as waves of foreign students studying in the U.S. have had their visas revoked, often without warning or explanation. DHS is facing several lawsuits over its actions.
In 2024-25, 6,793 international students attended Harvard, making up 27.2% of the university's enrollment, according to institutional data.
"If Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students," DHS said in a statement.
Following Harvard's condemnation of federal interference attempts, Trump ratcheted up his criticism of the university online.
"Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World’s Great Universities or Colleges," he said in a Wednesday social media post. "Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
In a separate post, he said that Harvard should "be Taxed as a Political Entity."
The Internal Revenue Service is reportedly making arrangements to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, according to CNN.
It's not clear that the Trump administration would have gone easier on Harvard had it complied.
Columbia University, another Ivy League institution, agreed to a similar round of task force demands following the cancellation of $400 million in federal contracts and grants. The task force praised the university's compliance but has yet to publicly reinstate its funding. The Trump administration also reportedly began pursuing a consent decree against Columbia, which would give the federal courts increased oversight of the institution.
Columbia has since followed Harvard's lead. In a Monday statement, its newly-appointed acting president said the university "would reject heavy-handed orchestration from the government that could potentially damage our institution and undermine useful reforms that serve the best interests of our students and community."
