We don't want students causing trouble: Trump blocks foreign visas at Harvard

UPDATED: Jun 5, 2025 05:32 IST

US President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation to restrict the entry of foreign nationals seeking to study or participate in exchange programs at Harvard University.

The order, which applies only to Harvard and not other US institutions, halts all new F, M, and J visa entries for the university and directs the Secretary of State to review and possibly revoke existing student visas for those already enroled.

“We want to have students,” Trump said, defending the move. “I want to have foreign students. We just don’t want students that are causing trouble.”

Last month, the US State Department ordered all its consular missions overseas to begin additional vetting of visa applicants looking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose.

The proclamation frames the policy as a national security measure and singles out Harvard’s “lack of cooperation” in providing student data. “We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard,” Trump said, “to determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country.”

The president emphasised that the policy does not affect other universities participating in the Student Exchange Visa Program (SEVP) and makes exceptions for those deemed in the national interest.

But Trump also connected the policy to domestic student access, suggesting that foreign enrollees at elite institutions displace American applicants. “We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools, they can’t get in because we have foreign students there,” he claimed. “But I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country.”

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