Trump Administration Threatens To Strip Harvard Law’s Ability To Enroll And Teach International Students

The Trump administration has been playing hardball with the legal industry to get its way. The shenanigans he’s pulled against the Orange Shoe firms has been high profile and frequently discussed, but the attacks on academia have been getting less coverage around here. When the administration set their sights on Columbia; the school caved after it was threatened with losing $400M in federal funding. On the other hand, Harvard responded to administration threats by filing a lawsuit to recover billions of dollars in frozen federal funding.

Harvard will soon have to fight on another front: the Department of Homeland Security just set sights on their students. From Law.com:

Hundreds of Harvard Law School students could potentially lose their enrollment status in the wake of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s decision to bar foreign students from enrolling or attending the university.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered the university a letter on Thursday to terminate Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification. In addition to being unable to enroll foreign students, existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status, according to Homeland Security’s announcement.

Noem accused Harvard of inspiring violence, fostering anti-semitism and conspiring with the Chinese Communist Party. Strong claims — you’d think a government with such good intel and the ability to abduct people could just target the suspected individuals, but things like due process keep getting in the way. So it’s time for a little collective punishment, threatening Harvard unless it does the government’s crackdown dirty work itself. You don’t need to believe me; Noem signposts what will happen to other schools that don’t fall in line:

“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,” Noem continued. “They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.”

She doesn’t need to explicitly name Cornell Law (15% of their 2027 class are international students), WashU Law (15.5% of their 2027 class are international students) or Duke Law (13% of their 2026 class are international students) for those administrations to know that their enrollment choices, budgeting strategies, and endowment numbers may be subject to the Department of Homeland Security’s whims.

Administrators aren’t the only ones wrapping their heads around what the DHS intervention could mean for student’s futures: the students are too. Over at r/lawschooladmissions Mike Spivey has reasoned out that a likely consequence of DHS bullying will be that Harvard Law will admit wait-listed students to take the seats earned by international students.

I think that it is time to face the truth. Crustacians tend toward carcinization, tech bros keep trying to re-invent buses and trains, and affirmative action is inevitable at Harvard… the administration has just decided it wants someone else to benefit. What is this punishment if not DHS requiring discrimination against international students to the benefit of “homegrown” applicants? One user had this to say:

As a person on the Harvard WL rn, I have to say that this is so conflicting to see. I absolutely hate what is taking place to these international students and, even if I did get accepted off the WL, I feel like I would always have the looming asterisks over my acceptance that I was only accepted because of the shenanigans of the administration. Whether it benefits me or not, this is detestable.

All hope isn’t lost: Spivey’s analysis also assumes that the impacted international students who have yet to enroll have a great chance of being granted a deferral to Fall 2026. Let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that.

Hundreds Of International Harvard Law Students Could Lose Enrollment Status In Wake of DHS Mandate [Law.com]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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