A Postgraduate student Harvard described the atmosphere of “destroying” uncertainty on campus because Trump’s administration seems to intensify his efforts to limit international students at prestigious universities.
“This is clearly a roller-coaster journey,” said Fangzhou Jiang, who has one semester left in his master program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “Over the past week, everyone really panicked about whether they should live in the United States or leave immediately.”
A federal judge in Boston announced Thursday that he would issue a preliminary order that prevented Trump’s administrative efforts to prevent Harvard to register international students.
The verdict marked a temporary victory for universities in the ongoing confrontation with the White House, which had launched many actions against the institution.
The Harvard sign was seen on the Harvard University campus in Boston, May 27, 2025.
Rick Friedman/AFP via Getty Images
Acting Director of Immigration Enforcement and US Customs issued a letter on Thursday which gave a 30 -day school to challenge the revocation of administrative certification to register international students.
DHS officials said that the revocation was needed because Harvard failed to submit information about international students – including disciplinary records – as requested by Trump’s administration.
The school said in the lawsuit against Trump’s administration that the actions of DHS “clear retaliation of Harvard carried out the first amendment to reject the government’s demands to control the governance of harvard, curriculum, and ‘ideology’ of the faculty and students.”
Trump’s government has freezed more than $ 3 billion in federal funding for Harvard and plans to cancel the remaining federal contracts worth around $ 100 million. President Donald Trump also expressed his interest in revoking university tax -free status.
Fangzhou Jiang studied under a student visa and had one semester remaining before graduating from the Government of the Government of Kennedy Harvard.
ABC News
Tensions increased further on Wednesday when the Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced officials would begin to “aggressively revoke” the visa of some Chinese students, triggered new concerns among the International Student Community.
“Everyone asks about plans for next year – do we have to take time off, whether we must return home and complete our semester online, or wait for more guidance,” said Jiang, who served as vice president of student government in family affairs.
For Harvard, where international students consist of more than A a quarter of the student bodyAccording to the university, the impact can be significant. Jiang emphasized that international students played an important role on campus, from conducting academic research to facilitating cultural exchange.
“Removing international students from Harvard will really not make Harvard Harvard for the past 400 years,” Jiang said. “This will have an impact on the number of perspectives owned by Harvard. This will definitely weaken the influence and reputation of Harvard’s international. This is clearly not for the best interests of American or the United States as a nation.”
Jiang said that while the university had committed to protect international students through legal actions and other ways, special guidance for the future academic year was unclear. Based on experience during Pandemi Covid-19, Jiang remains optimistic that online learning options can provide solutions if necessary.
“Schools have committed to protect international students in any capacity,” Jiang said. “I am still sure that the university will be able to provide steps to help us complete our education at Harvard.”
Harvard University said in a statement to ABC News, “Today’s court decision allows the university to continue to register students and international scholars while this case moves forward. Harvard will continue to take steps to protect the rights of our students and international scholars, our community members are very important for the academic mission and the university community -and their presence here benefit our country.”