DHS Revokes Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program Certification; Foreign Students Must Transfer or Lose Legal Status

Harvard University, in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, had its Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification revoked by the Department of Homeland Security on May 22, 2025. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered DHS to terminate Harvard's SEVP certification that day, which means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students, and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status.

"This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus," Secretary Noem said in the department's announcement. "It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused." She said Harvard lost its certification as a result of its failure to adhere to the law, and that the action should serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.

According to DHS, on April 16, 2025, Secretary Noem demanded that Harvard provide information about the criminality and misconduct of foreign students on its campus, and warned that refusal to comply would result in SEVP termination. DHS said Harvard refused to provide the required information and ignored a follow-up request from the department's Office of General Counsel. The action came after DHS terminated $2.7 million in DHS grants to Harvard the previous month.

In its announcement, DHS listed what it described as facts about Harvard's campus climate, including that Harvard's own 2025 internal study on antisemitism found almost 60% of Jewish students reported experiencing discrimination, stereotyping or negative bias on campus due to their views on current events; that crime rates at Harvard increased by 55% from 2022 to 2023; and that Harvard received $151 million from foreign governments since January 2020, more than 13 percent of the total $1.1 billion it received from foreign donors over the same period. DHS also said Harvard hosted and trained members of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a group placed on the U.S. Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals list in 2020, with engagements continuing as recently as 2024. The statements in this paragraph are DHS's account.

Harvard's enrollment data show 6,793 international students in the 2024-25 academic year, making up more than a quarter of its student body. SEVP is the Homeland Security program that governs the enrollment of foreign students; only certified institutions may enroll students and scholars on F or J visas.

Related: After Harvard Rejects Federal Demands, Government Freezes $2.2 Billion in Grants and $60 Million in Contracts

Related: Harvard Sues the Trump Administration to Overturn the $2.2 Billion Funding Freeze

(Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security)

Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：位于马萨诸塞州剑桥市的哈佛大学怀德纳图书馆（Widener Library）。Kenneth C. Zirkel 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Widener Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo by Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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