The Trump administration is putting more pressure on Harvard University by cutting off its ability to enroll foreign students and forcing those already enrolled there to move to a new school or risk losing their student visas beginning with the fall semester. The Department of Homeland Security says it is revoking the school’s student and exchange visitor program certification.

In a letter to the university, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said the decision was made as a result of Harvard’s “refusal to comply” with requests for information “while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies.”

“This action should not surprise you and is the unfortunate result of Harvard’s failure to comply with simple reporting requirements,” Ms. Noem said. 

The decision will stop Harvard from enrolling international students in the 2025-26 academic year. It also prevents the university from accepting visiting scholars sponsored by an exchange program. The university currently hosts more than 6,000 international students who provide a significant source of income for the school because most pay the full $56,000 annual tuition and receive no financial aid.

On April 16, Ms. Noem sent a letter to Harvard asking for information about foreign students, such as “known illegal activity, and whether the activity occurred on campus,” “known dangerous or violent activity,” “threats to other students,” or if students left the university “due to dangerous or violent activity or deprivation of rights.”

The secretary said Harvard responded to the request with information that was “represented as responsive to my request,” but not satisfactory from the administration’s point of view.

Ms. Noem said the university could regain its certification to enroll foreign students if it provides her department information about threats made by foreign students and incidents of “deprivation of rights of other classmates.” She gave the university a deadline of 72 hours to provide the information. 

Her list of demanded information extends beyond foreign students. Ms. Noem also asked for “any and all disciplinary records of all nonimmigrant students enrolled in Harvard University in the last five years” and “any and all audio or video footage … of any protest activity involving a nonimmigrant student on a Harvard University campus in the last five years.”

She added that individuals at Harvard with “nonimmigrant status must transfer to another university in order to maintain their nonimmigrant status.”

A Harvard spokesman, Jason Newton, said in a statement, “The government’s action is unlawful. 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.”

“This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission,” he added. 

In March, Axios reported that the Trump administration was considering exploring ways to block colleges from enrolling foreign students if too many are deemed to be “pro-Hamas.” The idea came out of Secretary Rubio’s so-called Catch and Revoke program. 

The Trump administration slashed billions of dollars in federal funding from Harvard over concerns about the university not doing enough to combat antisemitism and its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies on campus. President Trump has also threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status and levy new taxes on its multibillion-dollar endowment.