The war between one of America’s best-known universities and the Donald Trump administration intensified Wednesday with a pincer attack on Harvard.
The Department of Homeland Security threatened to revoke Harvard's ability to enrol foreign students and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was reported to be making plans to rescind the Ivy League varsity’s tax-exempt status.
The DHS threatened to act if Harvard failed to provide by April 30 records on its international student visa holders' "illegal and violent" activities.
A final decision on rescinding the university's tax exemption is expected soon, CNN reported.
The report comes a day after Trump threatened to strip the university of its tax-exempt status and said Harvard should apologise after the varsity rejected what it called unlawful demands to overhaul academic programmes or lose federal grants.
The Trump administration also cancelled grants totalling more than $2.7 million to Harvard University. This came on the heels of a $2.2 billion federal funding freeze because the university rejected a list of demands.
"Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced the cancellation of two DHS grants totalling over $2.7 million to Harvard University, declaring it unfit to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars," the DHS said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The Secretary also wrote a scathing letter demanding detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities by April 30, 2025, or face immediate loss of Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification," it said.
“Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism — driven by its spineless leadership — fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security,” said Secretary Noem.
“With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars," he said.
The DHS said the grants being cancelled were the $800,303 Implementation Science for Targeted Violence Prevention grant and the $1,934,902 Blue Campaign Program Evaluation and Violence Advisement grant.
Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Harvard’s foreign visa-holding rioters and faculty have "spewed antisemitic hate", targeting Jewish students, the statement said.
"With a $53.2 billion endowment, Harvard can fund its own chaos—DHS won’t," the statement said.
"If Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students," the statement added.
International students (6,793) comprise 27.2 per cent of Harvard’s enrolment in the 2024-25 academic year.
