The proclamation accuses Harvard University of failing to ‘discipline at least some categories of conduct violations on campus.’
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on June 4 to suspend international visas for new students at Harvard University as his administration and the Ivy League college battle in court over frozen federal funding.
Trump’s proclamation, “Enhancing National Security by Addressing Risks at Harvard University,” stops any new Harvard students from entering the United States as nonimmigrants under student (F), vocational (M), and exchange visitor (J) visas. It directs “the Secretary of State to consider revoking existing F, M, or J visas for current Harvard students who meet the Proclamation’s criteria.”
The proclamation accuses Harvard of failing to “discipline at least some categories of conduct violations on campus.” It also states that U.S. adversaries, such as the Chinese Communist Party, are trying to “take advantage of American higher education by exploiting the student visa program for improper purposes and by using visiting students to collect information at elite universities in the United States.”
The Trump administration is accusing Harvard of not properly addressing these allegations and of refusing requests from the Department of Homeland Security for information about foreign students’ “known illegal activity.”
“These actions and failures directly undermine the Federal Government’s ability to ensure that foreign nationals admitted on student or exchange visitor visas remain in compliance with Federal law,” Trump’s proclamation stated.
In a statement to The Epoch Times, Harvard said it “will continue to protect its international students.”
“This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights,” a Harvard spokesperson said.
The White House said the move was to “safeguard national security” amid Harvard’s alleged failure to “provide sufficient information” on its foreign students and its “reporting deficient data on only three students.”
“Harvard is either not fully reporting its disciplinary records for foreign students or is not seriously policing its foreign students,” the proclamation stated.
The Trump administration has accused Harvard of failing to address anti-Semitism on campus and of continuing its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
By Jacob Burg
