Harvard | Pakistan

The United States government said on Wednesday that it subpoenaed Harvard University for records linked to students allegedly involved in a wave of pro-Palestinian student protests that the Trump administration labelled anti-Semitic. Since being sworn in again in January, President Donald Trump has targeted top US universities over claims they are politically biased towards anti-Jewish hate and “woke” politics. Trump has waged a political and economic campaign against Harvard, stripping it of funds and demanding extensive records linked to foreign students, whom it has repeatedly attempted to block the prestigious university from enrolling and hosting. “After many previous requests to hand over relevant information concerning foreign students, DHS will now send subpoenas forcing Harvard to comply,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement. Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that “Harvard, like other universities, has allowed foreign students to abuse their visa ...

A federal judge said on Monday that she would issue a brief extension of an order temporarily blocking United States President Donald Trump’s plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the US to study at Harvard University while she decides whether to issue a longer-term injunction. US District Judge Allison Burroughs, at the end of a hearing in Boston in Harvard’s legal challenge to the restrictions, extended to June 23 a temporary restraining order that had been set to expire on Thursday. She said she wanted to give herself more time to prepare a ruling. “We’ll kick out an opinion as soon as we can,” she said. Ian Gershengorn, a lawyer for Harvard, told her that an injunction was necessary to ensure Trump’s administration could not implement his latest bid to curtail the school’s ability to host international students. The judge scheduled the hearing after issuing a temporary restraining order on June 6, preventing the administration from implementing a proclamation that Trump had signed a day earlier. A p...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pushing to investigate whether Harvard University violated federal sanctions, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by the newspaper. Rubio is pushing to investigate if Harvard violated sanctions by collaborating on a health insurance conference in China that may have included officials blacklisted by the United States, the paper said. The university has been conducting an internal review into the involvement of the Chinese state-run group Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps at the conference, the paper added. Rubio signed off on a recommendation to the Treasury Department last month to open an investigation, the report said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. A treasury department spokesman said the agency takes “any allegations of sanctions violations extremely seriously” but declined to comment on possible or pending investigations. A State Department spokesperson also declined to co...

Harvard University has been flooded with requests from foreign students to transfer to other institutions as US President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to ban it from hosting international scholars, a staff member said on Wednesday. “Too many international students to count have inquired about the possibility of transferring to another institution,” Maureen Martin, director of immigration services, wrote in a court filing. Trump has upended the United States’ reputation among foreign students, who number around one million, as he presses a campaign against US universities he sees as obstructing his “Make America Great Again” populist agenda. He has blocked Harvard from hosting international scholars in a manoeuvre being challenged legally, targeted non-citizen campus activists for deportation, and most recently suspended student visa processing across the board. The president’s crackdown has prompted “profound fear, concern, and confusion” among students and staff at the elite university, which has been...

US President Donald Trump defended on Sunday his administration’s move to block foreign students at Harvard after a judge suspended the action, branded by the top university as unlawful. “Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31 [per cent] of their students are from foreign lands, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay nothing toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard billions of dollars, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol foreign nationals, throwing the future of thousands of students and the lucrative income stream they provide into doubt. She had threatened last month to block international students at the school unless it turned over records on visa holders’ “illegal and violent activities”. But a judge quickly suspended the m...

Harvard University sued the Trump administration on Friday over its decision to revoke the Ivy League school’s ability to enrol foreign students, ratcheting up White House efforts to conform practices in academia to President Donald Trump’s policies. In a complaint filed in Boston federal court, Harvard called the revocation a “blatant violation” of the US Constitution and other federal laws and had an “immediate and devastating effect” on the university and more than 7,000 visa holders. “With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission,” Harvard said. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the 389-year-old school added. Harvard asked a federal judge to block the revocation, citing “the immediate and irreparable harm inflicted by this lawless action.” The case was assigned to US District Judge Allison Burroughs. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson d...

United States President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday revoked Harvard’s right to enrol foreign students — more than a quarter of its annual enrollment — in a major escalation of the president’s fight with one of the world’s most storied universities. Trump is furious at Harvard, which has produced 162 Nobel prize winners, for rejecting his demand that it submit to oversight on admissions and hiring over his claims that it is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology. “Effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor (Sevis) Programme certification is revoked,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a letter to the Ivy League institution, referring to the main system by which foreign students are permitted to study in the United States. Last month, Trump threatened to stop Harvard from enrolling foreign students if it did not agree to government demands that would put the private institution under outside political supervision. “As I explained to you in...