DHS Threatens to Revoke Foreigner Enrollment to Harvard, Cancels $2.7 Million in Grants

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says Harvard is ‘unfit to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.’

Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on April 16, 2025. Learner Liu/The Epoch Times

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on April 16 threatened to revoke Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign students, and announced that DHS was pulling $2.7 million in grants from the school.

Noem tied the decision to Harvard’s response to the pro-Palestinian protests at the school that began after Israel’s military operation targeting Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip in response to the group’s attacks on southern Israel in October 2023.

“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 DHS said in a statement announcing the action.

The statement said that Noem had also written a letter demanding that Harvard provide detailed records on its foreign student visa holders’ “illegal and violent activities” by April 30, or the university faces immediate loss of Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification.

“If Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students,” the DHS said.

The university came under congressional investigation more than a year ago after it was accused of condoning anti-Semitism on campus—a charge that led to the resignation of Claudine Gay, then-president of Harvard, in January 2024, amid other accusations of plagiarism.

Noem said Harvard’s handling of anti-Semitic activities “threatens our national security.”

“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,” Noem said in the DHS statement. “America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”

Grants Canceled

DHS also canceled two grants to the school totaling $2.7 million, stating that they “undermine America’s values and security.”

The first, an $800,303 Implementation Science for Targeted Violence Prevention grant “branded conservatives as far-right dissidents in a shockingly skewed study,” DHS said.

The $1,934,902 Blue Campaign Program Evaluation and Violence Advisement grant “funded Harvard’s public health propaganda.”

Elite Colleges Face Heat

The move by the DHS is the latest action in a series of administration efforts against elite colleges and universities that allegedly permitted anti-Semitic and violent activities at the height of the nationwide pro-Palestinian protests in 2024.

Federal agencies recently pulled $2.26 billion in funding from Harvard.

The agencies, including the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, laid out their demands for the school in an April 11 letter.

Harvard University students pass protestors while filing into Harvard Yard for commencement at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on May 23, 2024. Charles Krupa/AP Photo

The first of these called for substantial governance reforms, establishing clear hierarchies, elevating senior and tenured professors, and reducing the power of students and untenured faculty over school affairs.

They also called for an end to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and for implementation of merit-based hiring and admissions reform, demanding the university “adopt and implement merit-based admissions policies and cease all preferences based on race, color, [and] national origin.”

The administration is also demanding that the school revamp its “recruitment, screening, and admissions of international students to prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism.”

The letter further calls for Harvard to increase its “viewpoint diversity,” with a demand that faculty in each department should reflect different perspectives on politics and social issues.

In response to these demands, Harvard indicated in an April 14 statement that it had no intention of complying.

“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” they wrote in a post on social media platform X. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.”

President Donald Trump also suggested in a recent post on social media that the school lose its tax-exempt status, saying such status is “totally contingent on acting in the public interest.”