Trump Bans Harvard from Enrolling International Students

[00:00:00]
News Presenter - Boris
We do have breaking news now. The Trump administration has just revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll any, any international students. The existing international students there have to transfer out and no new ones can be accepted in.

[00:00:13]
News Presenter - Brianna
This marks a sharp escalation in the ongoing battle between the White House and the nation's oldest university. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is at the White House. Jeff, tell us what's happening here.

[00:00:25]
Reporter - Jeff Zeleny
Well, Brianna and Boris, there has been an ongoing fight between the White House and Harvard University over the curriculum, over the federal funding, and now over international students. As you said, this is a dramatic escalation. We are learning this announcement from the Department of Homeland Security. Secretary Kristi Noem making the announcement this afternoon, essentially giving a warning to Harvard that they are no longer allowed to admit international students. So she writes this in part, they have lost their student and exchange visitor program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law, she says. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country. So let's break that down a touch. She's accusing them, Harvard University, university of failing to adhere to the law.

[00:01:11]
Reporter - Jeff Zeleny
Of course, there were some rules, essentially, that were put out as strings, if you will, on federal funding for what type of a curriculum universities could use, what type of DEI programs they could and couldn't have. Of course this all stems from protests on college campuses. Harvard University is pushing back very hard at this. Just a statement coming out just a few moments ago. Harvard is saying that they will challenge this illegally as well. And they go on to say this. The government's action is unlawful, Harvard says. We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard's ability to host international students and scholars who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the university and this nation immeasurably. So how many students are we talking about here? Well, in this academic year alone, almost 30 percent of Harvard's student body is were made up of international students, 6,793, according to this year's academic record.

[00:02:11]
Reporter - Jeff Zeleny
So the government is saying that these students must transfer. We are told that they are likely to be able to transfer to another U.S. institution, not necessarily return to their home countries. But, of course, this will be one of the many actions of this administration that will be challenged legally, but certainly once again, a dramatic escalation from the U.S. government against Harvard. Boris and Brianna.

[00:02:37]
News Presenter - Brianna
Certainly is Jeff Zeleny. Thank you. And with us now to discuss is Ryan Enos, the professor of government at Harvard University. He's also a member of Harvard's chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which is currently suing the Trump administration. Professor, thank you for being with us. This decision that Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students have to transfer or lose their legal status. What's your reaction to this?

[00:03:06]
Prof. Ryan Enos
I think it's awful and it's outrageous. It's another pattern of the Trump administration taking authoritarian actions. In the United States, the president does not have the power to punish people, target people for punishment because he doesn't like their politics. And he's targeting Harvard because he thinks he politically disagrees with them. It's a political vendetta. And he's doing this on the back of students who were admitted to Harvard from around the world for their merit, for things that they accomplished in life. And now he's trying to punish them, to hold them hostage, essentially, to try to win what he considers to be this political fight with Harvard. That's what authoritarians do. It's not done by the rule of law.

[00:03:52]
News Presenter - Brianna
Secretary Noem says the administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, anti-Semitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus. What do you say to that? I see you shaking your head.

[00:04:06]
Prof. Ryan Enos
Yeah, I mean, I could shake my head all day against those things. I would ask them what violence they're pointing to, what anti-Semitism they're pointing to, what coordination with the Chinese Communist Party they're pointing to. These are outrageous statements. And I think it's become increasingly clear that the public doesn't believe this. The American public doesn't belief this. And they are leveling these outrageous claims to try to win this political battle. And in a certain respect, I think we see this pattern with them. It doesn't matter whether these accusations they are making are true. They're all a pretext for this trying to punish Harvard and punish other universities as a way to bring them under their control. And as I said earlier, that is what authoritarians do. It's not the way things should be done in the United States.

[00:04:55]
News Presenter - Brianna
Some of this may come down to what particular free speech may be allowed, but the secretary is also citing Harvard's own report. Harvard released two reports last month on anti-Israel bias, and there was another one on anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian bias, finding in part that Jewish students had faced bias, suspicion, intimidation, alienation, shunning, contempt, and sometimes effective exclusion from various curricular and co-curricular parts of the university and its community. It also found that Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students and faculty who voiced concern over rising death tolls in Gaza and the unfolding humanitarian crisis there overwhelmingly felt abandoned, and some believed they were actively silenced by Harvard administrators. What work do you think Harvard has to do on these issues?

[00:05:50]
Prof. Ryan Enos
You know, Harvard is a big, diverse place, bringing people together from across the world and from different communities across the United States and putting them in a place where they live together and they study together and they work together. And then when things happen in the world, like happened in Gaza and happened in Israel, are going to touch our community. And of course, people are just going to disagree. And sometimes it's going to lead to things that shouldn't happen, like shunning and like people yelling at each other, whatever types of things we want to cite in those reports. And those are things we need to sort out. And we need to make happen less because we're an academic community. And ultimately, we should be trying to find constructive ways to bridge our disagreements.

[00:06:34]
Prof. Ryan Enos
They are not the type of things that would lead to some kind of extreme response, like banning international students, which I should mention would include Israeli students, from coming to Harvard. That doesn't make people agree. It doesn't make these issues of disagreement that happen in a diverse community go away. And so we'll keep working on those things at Harvard. That's part of what makes Harvard a great institution, is we find ways to constructively deal with our differences, which we do have. But it's not the type of thing that will be solved by authoritarian attacks on our international students.

[00:07:07]
News Presenter - Brianna
The administration is making it clear here that part of this punishment is about a financial effect on Harvard, that foreign students pay higher tuition payments, says help pad multi-billion dollar endowments. What do you think that the administration is trying to do here financially to Harvard?

[00:07:35]
Prof. Ryan Enos
They're looking for another way to punish Harvard. Foreign students, they don't just contribute to Harvard because of the money they bring in through tuition. And we should be very clear about that. They contribute to Harvard, because these are the best students in the world that are coming to the United States and bringing their talents in a way that benefits not just Harvard, but the American people. And they make our community richer, many of them through their intellectual contributions, many of them stay in the United States and help our economy and help our communities. And what the Trump administration is ultimately trying to do is take that away, not just from Harvard, but from the American people that these foreign students benefit. This is one of the great things about the United States, is that people come from all over the world to study here.

[00:08:21]
Prof. Ryan Enos
It's an incredible blessing. It's something that no other country has, where the smartest people in the world come to our institutions to study. And ultimately, that punishment isn't just going to Harvard, it's going to the United States. It has taken away a great resource that has built up through these universities like Harvard.

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