U.S. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on Wednesday suspending visas for foreign students to study at Harvard University for six months, and directing the U.S. secretary of state to review the school’s current foreign students and weigh revoking their visas if they threaten U.S. national security.
“Harvard University is no longer a trustworthy steward of international student and exchange visitor programs. When a university refuses to uphold its legal obligations, including its recordkeeping and reporting obligations, the consequences ripple far beyond the campus,” Trump stated.
“They jeopardize the integrity of the entire United States student and exchange visitor visa system, compromise national security and embolden other institutions to similarly disregard the rule of law,” he said.
To protect U.S. national security, schools must share enough information with the federal government to “identify and address misconduct” by foreign students, according to the president.
“In my judgment, it presents an unacceptable risk to our nation’s security for an academic institution to refuse to provide sufficient information, when asked, about known instances of misconduct and criminality committed by its foreign students,” he stated.
Harvard has refused recent U.S. Department of Homeland Security requests for information about illegal and dangerous activities of its foreign students, per the proclamation.
“Harvard provided data on misconduct by only three students, and the data it provided was so deficient that the DHS could not evaluate whether it should take further actions,” Trump stated. “Harvard’s actions show that it either is not fully reporting its disciplinary records for foreign students or is not seriously policing its foreign students.”
