Case Spotlight: President and Fellows of Harvard College v. United States Department of Homeland Security
By Cole Snyder ‘27
In a press release dated March 31, 2025, the United States federal government announced that they would be performing a “comprehensive review” of federal grant money and contracts given to Harvard University. This review, led by the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and the U.S. General Services Administration, aims to combat and eliminate “anti-Semitic” harassment on college campuses. These three organizations stated that they will be reviewing upwards of $8.7 billion in multi-year grants given to Harvard University. This review is a part of President Donald Trump’s larger efforts to combat anti-Semitism across the country. This review also came in the wake of Columbia University agreeing to terms set out by the Trump Administration regarding anti-Semitism on their own campus. That same day, March 31st, Harvard’s Office of the President issued their own statement in response. In this letter they stated that they would be willing to work with the federal government to root out anti-Semitism on campus, and that Harvard has, over the last 15 months, actively taken steps on their campus to address anti-Semitism.
On April 11, 2025, Dr. Alan M. Garber, the President of Harvard University received a letter from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education, and the General Services Administration. In this letter, they alleged that Harvard has “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.” The letter then went on to lay out a series of “provisions” which, if Harvard meets, will “maintain Harvard’s financial relationship with the federal government.” These demands include reforms made by Harvard in relation to university leadership, hiring practices, and their admissions process. All of the data from these three areas would be subject to a comprehensive audit by the United States Government until the end of 2028. Also touched on in this letter was the idea of “viewpoint diversity.” The government stated that Harvard must hire a third party to “audit the student body, faculty, staff, and leadership for viewpoint diversity, such that each department, field, or teaching unit must be individually viewpoint diverse.” Any department or field who fails to “pass” the standard for viewpoint diversity would have to be reformed by either hiring a “critical mass” of faculty members or by admitting a “critical mass” of students.
The letter also demanded that Harvard administrators take steps to combat and reform programs with “Egregious Records of Antisemitism.” Harvard would have to hire another third-party investigation into programs and departments at Harvard that “most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture.” Some of the programs listed to be audited in this section of the letter include the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic, the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Included in this report would be any and all information about faculty members who discriminated against Jewish or Israeli students or encouraged students to violate Harvard’s rules in response to the October 7th attack. The federal government also laid new policy to forbid student groups that endorse criminal behavior in any way, invite non-students onto campus who violate campus rules, or encourages criminal harassment. Already targeted in this letter was a list of on-campus student organizations who participated in “anti-Semitic” activity. The five groups mentioned by name in the letter are the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee, Harvard Graduate Students 4 Palestine, Law Students 4 Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine, and the National Lawyers Guild. The government also requested that Harvard implements a “comprehensive mask ban with serious and immediate penalties for violation, not less than suspension.”
In response to the list of requests by the federal government, Harvard sent their own letter on April 14th, 2025. In this letter they once again emphasized that they have taken measures over the past 15 months to combat anti-Semitism on their campus and make sure they foster an open and welcoming learning environment. They went on to say that the list of “demands” would abridge the freedoms the university has with respect to how it runs its university. Harvard also pointed out that the government has not gone through the processes required by law and Congress to prove the allegations true. At the end of their letter, they stated that Harvard will remain open to dialogue, but will not agree to demands that “go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.”
In response to the letter, the Department of Homeland Security sent a letter to Harvard immediately revoking the University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification. Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, stated that if Harvard wanted any chance of hosting international students, they had 72 hours to comply with a list of requests. In this list, they requested a multitude of documents related to actions/crimes committed by non-immigrant Harvard students in the last five years. Lawyers for Harvard filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security the next day, May 23rd, 2025. That same day, Judge Allison D. Burroughs granted Harvard University a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), reinstating their international student visa eligibility. Harvard lawyers argue that the revocation of their visa program, combined with their recent loss in funding, was an attempt by the Trump Administration to "micromanage private speech.” Five days after the lawsuit was filed, the Department of Homeland Security sent an updated “Notice of Intent to Withdraw” Harvard University’s visa program. In this letter they allege three different “compliance issues” in Harvard’s SEVP certification. This action was also enjoined by Judge Burroughs through a TRO.
Later on during the summer, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation suspending Harvard from admitting students to come through an F, M, or J visa. It also requests that existing visas for Harvard students be reviewed and, if they fail to meet certain criteria, potentially revoked. In a fact sheet posted to the White House website, White House officials listed out a multitude of reasons for this action, including Harvard allegedly failing to meet the Department of Homeland Security’s demands for information about foreign students studying at Harvard. The federal government goes on to allege that there has been a drastic increase in crime at Harvard, that Harvard has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (including Chinese President Xi Jinping’s own daughter studying there in 2010), and that they failed to address violent anti-Semitic incidents that took place on campus. For all of these reasons, the government concludes that Harvard could no longer be “trusted” to host foreign students. This proclamation only affects international students studying at Harvard University and does not affect students in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program studying at different colleges and universities.
The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) was established in the wake of the September 11th, 2001, attack, as a part of the larger reforms of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The SEVP allows schools to bring in international students to study at their universities. Generally, schools can acquire SEVP certifications for both academic and vocational students. These two groups are labeled as F-1 and M-1 students, respectively. Schools that elect to participate in these programs are held to a strict record-keeping requirement and can be required to disclose those records at any time. These visas are controlled by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Through this program, DHS keeps records on all schools participating in the program as well as the students attending universities across the country. These records are kept in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). SEVIS collects information including, but not limited to, English proficiency, financial information, program registration, and student’s passport information. The DHS can also request information relating to any immigrant student’s criminal record.
Lawyers from Harvard argue that the revocation of their SEVP certification is an unconstitutional act and violates their First Amendment rights because it is an attempt by the government to coerce and control their operations as a private institution. They argue that the small gap in time between the April 16th letter and the withdrawal of their SEVP is too small to argue otherwise. That, on top of the statements President Trump made about their tax-exempt status and the proclamation he signed into law. Lawyers from Harvard also state that the Department of Homeland Security and the President overstepped their executive authority because restricting visas for the sole purpose of seeking an education at Harvard is not a valid class under federal statutes.
The Department of Homeland Security argues not only it is within the president’s power to suspend immigration for any class of individuals trying to enter the United States but that the Department of Homeland Security had legitimate reasons to withdraw the SEVP certification at Harvard. They state that the ability to host international students is a privilege, not a right under the First Amendment. Universities that seek to participate in this program have to comply with data-sharing policies and regulations by the Department of Homeland Security. Harvard not complying with their requests for information about international students meant that they could not be “trusted” with the SEVP certification. The DHS also asserts that restricting a group based on their purpose of entry makes them a valid class. Since the proclamation made by President Trump targets a specific group of individuals, international students studying at Harvard, they are a valid class. The government also denies that any action taken by one of their agencies was a retaliatory action due to any kind of political agenda.
Currently, this case is waiting on a ruling from Judge Allison Burroughs on a motion to dismiss by the Department of Homeland Security. In addition to this case, a separate lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services found the Government’s actions in canceling federal funding grants for Harvard to be an unconstitutional act after Harvard attorneys won a motion for summary judgment.
Cole Snyder is a junior majoring in physics.
Sources
Burck, William. (April 14. 2025). [Letter from Harvard in response to April 11th Letter]. Retrieved from https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Harvard-Response-2025-04-14.pdf
Department of Homeland Security. Getting Started with SEVP Certification. Department of Homeland Security https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/schools/apply/getting-started-with-sevp-certification
Department of Homeland Security. Student Information Page. Department of Homeland Security https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/sevis-help-hub/student-records/student-information-page
Fact Sheets. (June 4, 2025). Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Restricts Foreign Student Visas at Harvard University. The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/06/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-restricts-foreign-student-visas-at-harvard-university/
Garber, Alan N. (March 31, 2025). [Letter from President of Harvard University to Members of Harvard Community]. Retrieved from https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2025/our-resolve/
Gruenbaum, Josh. (April 11, 2025). [Letter of requests for Harvard by the Government]. Retrieved from https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Letter-Sent-to-Harvard-2025-04-11.pdf
Lyons, Todd. (May 28, 2025). [Notice of Intent to Withdraw SEVP certification from Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Harvard]. Retrieved from https://www.harvard.edu/federal-lawsuits/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2025/05/Notice-of-Intent-to-Withdrawal-Harvard-University_Redacted.pdf
Motion to Dismiss, President and Fellows of Harvard College v. Department of Homeland Security, No. 1:25cv-11472-ADB (District Court District of Massachusetts) (August 8, 2025) ECF No. 86 https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.285083/gov.uscourts.mad.285083.89.0.pdf
Noem, Kristi. (May 22, 2025). [Letter from Secretary of Homeland Security to Harvard to decertify Student Exchange and Visitor Program]. Retrieved from https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/05/S1-Ltr-to-Harvard-05222025_Redacted.pdf
Opposition to Motion to Dismiss, President and Fellows of Harvard College v. Department of Homeland Security, No. 1:25cv-11472-ADB (District Court District of Massachusetts) (Sep. 5, 2025) ECF No. 89 https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.285083/gov.uscourts.mad.285083.89.0.pdf
United States Department of Education. (March 31, 2025). ED, HHS, and GSA Initiate Federal Contract and Grant Review of Harvard University. https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/ed-hhs-and-gsa-initiate-federal-contract-and-grant-review-of-harvard-university
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (September 26, 2025). Policy Manual Chapter 1 - Purpose and Background. United States Department of Homeland Security. https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-2-part-f-chapter-1#
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. SEVISOverview. United States Department of Homeland Security. https://www.ice.gov/sevis
