Noem Cites School’s ‘Pro-Terrorist Conduct’

Stephen Dinan | May 23, 2025

(The Washington Times) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem moved Thursday to decertify Harvard University from the government’s foreign student program. This means the school can no longer host foreign students, and any students enrolled must try to transfer.

The decision, which could cost the school a quarter of its students, is the latest in an escalating war of words and actions between the Trump administration and the storied school.

Ms. Noem said the decertification was punishment for Harvard’s “pro-terrorist conduct,” including fostering antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.

“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,” she said. “Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused.

“Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country,” the secretary said.

Harvard called the decertification unlawful.

“We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University — and this nation — immeasurably,” the school said.

Schools that host foreign students must register with the Homeland Security Department’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program and follow specific rules to ensure that only legitimate students are admitted and gain entry to the U.S.

Ms. Noem said she warned Harvard last month that its status was in danger. She said the school “brazenly” rebuffed her inquiries.

Harvard said earlier this month that it had responded to the department’s request, but the school declined to reveal that response.

Harvard called the federal decertification “retaliatory” and said it “undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission.”

In the current academic year, Harvard has about 6,800 international students, representing 27% of the total enrollment. Two decades ago, fewer than 4,000 foreign students were enrolled, making up less than 20% of the student body.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and a professor emeritus at American University, called Ms. Noem’s decision “a fit of pique and retaliatory vengeance.

“By calling this move a ‘warning to all universities,’ the Administration has laid bare Trump’s desire to bully and intimidate colleges and universities into becoming obedient agents of his gangster state instead of being institutions of truth, discovery and intellectual progress,” the Maryland lawmaker said.

Foreign students expressed uncertainty and anger to The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper.

Karl N. Molden said students must worry about transferring their credits and losing their friends while looking for other schools.

Leo Gerden, a student from Sweden, called the move “devastating” and urged a lawsuit against the administration.

Ms. Noem said Harvard’s campus has become “toxic,” with an increasing number of confrontations and declining safety in recent years.

She cited data showing crime rates increased 55% from 2022 to 2023 and said the school allowed “pro-Hamas student groups” to retain their recognition even after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

A U.S. government task force investigating antisemitism on campuses said this month that Harvard failed to constrain abusive behavior toward Jewish students and rewarded abusers.

In one case, the Harvard Law Review approved a $65,000 fellowship for someone facing criminal charges in the assault of a Jewish student, the task force said.

The school’s review of antisemitism on campus also sustained complaints.

The Trump administration previously moved to freeze billions of dollars in federal grants and contracts to the school.

Harvard sued to halt the freeze. It acknowledged concerns about antisemitism but said denying federal funding would cancel critical health research and scientific advancements.

Harvard said the Trump administration’s hiring and school curriculum demands were too burdensome.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said Homeland Security’s demands for information trod on students’ free speech rights.

“The administration seems hellbent on employing every means at its disposal — no matter how unlawful or unconstitutional — to retaliate against Harvard and other colleges and universities for speech it doesn’t like,” the foundation said on social media.

Foreign students have been a particular focus of the Trump administration, particularly the nexus between antisemitism and immigration policy.

The administration botched an earlier attempt to revoke the status of a number of foreign students. After a tsunami of lawsuits, in which nearly all judges ruled against the government, Trump officials canceled the effort and restored the students’ full status.