(The Hill) – International students have a new reality to tackle as U.S. campuses are not safe shelters while the Trump administration is trying to separate themselves from Harvard University.
In attempting to block Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign-born students, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the move was “a warning to all other universities and a warning to bring you all together” and would compete for campus communities far from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“We’re seeing a lot,” President Donald Trump said Friday when asked if other schools were considering similar moves.
For more than a million foreign-born college students in the US whose visas are linked to their education, it is a potential life-changing threat.
Shawn Carver, executive director of the UC Berkeley International House, said the DHS announcement was “targeted for Harvard, but it’s really a kind of shot across the bow of a public or private institution in the US.”
“The damage is done. So much of the uncertainty this creates for international students across the country is inhumane. It’s not fair that many of these international students are at risk that they have no reason for, and not their own fault,” Carver said.
The judge temporarily suspends the order from the DHS and is scheduled for a hearing next Thursday, acknowledging Harvard’s concern that “we will maintain immediate and irreparable injuries before all parties contact us.”
While it is sighing for temporary relief for international students, supporters say the damage to the US’s reputation as a destination for foreign scholars has been built up over the past few months.
Foreign students make up only 6% of people studying at US universities, but Trump has been a major focus on them since the start of his presidency.
His administration has released thousands of student visas, many with little explanation, but some flee the country for fear of arrest, but some later recovered.
Others have been detained and accused of supporting Hamas for his involvement in pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year and poses a threat to US foreign policy.
And in the meantime, Trump is also chasing the university itself: cutting funds, demanding policy changes, or both for schools like Harvard.
“What I think is a challenge for international students right now is that they are asking this question: ‘Are you really welcomed in America?’ And they want stability.
“This is a huge investment for students and their families to make and given that they absolutely see other options, such as visa revocation, Sevis Records (…), they are literally willing to put their future at risk with the actions taken every week.
Trump’s war against Harvard in particular includes two separate lawsuits from the school against his administration, one after foreign students moved, and one after a freeze of billions of dollars in federal funding.
While other schools don’t necessarily change the way they do business based on the Battle of Harvard, it’s unsettling to see the oldest and wealthiest schools in a country that is fighting for their independence.
“It also has a cold effect on agencies that may recertify or know that the federal government will apply regulations like this for seemingly political reasons.
Miriam Feldbram, president and CEO of the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, says some schools in her alliance already have seen a higher percentage of international students reducing acceptance.
“It’s still too early to see the full scope of it, but a few things are focused,” Feldbrum said.
“While we might want to think of this as merely an attack on issues between Harvard University and the administration and Harvard, from our perspective, these actions have heightened an environment of fear, anxiety and uncertainty that has disrupted the lives of students, faculty and campus across the country in recent months,” she added. “I don’t think this is done in a vacuum. It’s just adding fuel to the uncertainty that’s across the US, not just for international students, but also for campuses.”
