CNN
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International Harvard students say they are experiencing “pure panic” amid the Trump administration’s ban on alien registration as students from around the world are telling CNN that leaving this summer could prevent them from re-entering the US and re-entering.
A federal judge temporarily suspended the Trump administration’s ban on Friday after the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university filed a lawsuit in federal court. Harvard argued that the revocation of accreditation in the Student and Exchange Visitors Program was “clear retaliation” for rejecting government ideologically rooted policy demands.
However, with thousands of international students remaining and unaware of their current legal status, they are “very clearly and very afraid,” Abdullah Shahid Sial, a student body at Harvard University who is from Lahore, Pakistan, told CNN.
“They are literally like thousands of miles away where they have to deal with this situation in their teens, their hometown. Attorneys are often afraid to work,” said Sial, who is currently traveling abroad after the exam.
Approximately 27% of Harvard student organizations are international, with 6,793 international undergraduate and graduate students from almost every country in the world.
“Harvard is Harvard because it has the ability to attract people, not just the US, but the world, the best,” Sial told CNN on Friday. “The United States also benefits greatly from coming to college and studying the best in the world. And they are dehumanized and neglected.”
Sial said the university and deans are helping to support international students at a time of uncertainty and “pure panic.”
As president of the student body, he says he is working to encourage international students who want to transfer to other universities and to help students transfer financial aid packages. However, windows relocating to other universities for the fall semester have already been closed at most universities, Sial said.
“Many of us have worked for the rest of our lives to arrive at a university like Harvard. Now we need to wait and see if we need to move on a visa and face difficulties.”
Malden, who also travels abroad and worries about not being allowed to return to campus, said he feels that international students are being used as “the ball of this big battle between democracy and authoritarianism.”
Jared, 18, from New Zealand, had just been accepted into Harvard and had planned to start his undergraduate course at an Ivy League school this fall. He told CNN it was a moment of “heart calm” when he learned of the Trump administration’s announcement.
Harvard and Trump officials have been locked in conflict for months as the White House exterminates anti-Semitism and “racist” practices, demanding that universities make changes to campus programming, policies, employment and admission.
Like many other universities, Harvard University last year drew intense criticism over the pro-Palestinian protests and handling of camps after the start of the Israel-Hamas War, as well as complaints from Jewish alumni and students about anti-Semitism on campus.
Harvard said he had acknowledged anti-Semitism on campus, particularly in the previous academic year, and began taking concrete action to address it.
An Israeli postdoctoral student studying at Harvard University said he felt that Jewish students were being “used as pawns” by the Trump administration. This accuses the university of being “hostile to Jewish students” and “adopting racist diversity, equity and inclusive practices.”
Israeli students didn’t want to be named for fear of being denied re-entry into the United States, but they said they believe the Trump administration is “using” the university “to make this fight against academia that’s much bigger than Harvard.”
She said the government is tightening the idea that “we don’t have any real concerns about the safety of Israeli students, Jewish students, and it doesn’t always align with the administration.”
“So we feel like we’re being used,” she said, adding that university leadership is like that. We take the issue of anti-Semitism on campus seriously. “I don’t want to reduce anyone’s experience in college. I know people have had tough experiences, but personally I feel I have 100% confidence and faith in our leadership.”
Another Israeli master’s degree studying at Harvard University remained anonymous due to concerns about how speaking publicly would affect their research, telling CNN that it is very important that Israelis and Jews come here and that they still believe in its very strong and that it is a campaign not only for Harvard University, but also for America’s academia and America.”
One Australian graduate student spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being denied a future US visa, but told CNN that, given the many researchers and doctoral students lack the time or interest in working, “I feel extraordinary that we are all punished, that we are all punished.”
“As graduate students, we are fully occupied by research work. I think I spend 80-100 hours each week,” the Australian student said, adding that the Trump administration and Harvard showdown is likely to leave the researchers. “If things really hit the fans, then (i) they’re probably going to transfer to a British school.”
Other graduate students said they were concerned about their research work, their future careers and their loved ones, and also felt fear and uncertainty.
“Their family, your spouse, your children, their registration, their work status, their rent, their housing, everything affects,” said Fangzhou Jiang, 30, from China. He is a student at Harvard Kennedy School and is entering his second year of his master’s degree. “I just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Faced with deportation from the US, retaliation at home
Some international students are even higher for even higher international students, like countries that are experiencing wartime or political turmoil.
Maria Kuznetsova, a former spokesman for OVD-INFO, a Russian independent human rights monitoring group, is currently a graduate student at Harvard Kennedy Government School. She graduated in a week and had planned to work on a visa sponsored by Harvards, which had already been recognized, but she fears that it will be cancelled now.
“I worked against Russia’s human rights, meaning I can’t go back to Russia,” Kuznetsova told CNN. “And I’ve been living in the US for two years and don’t even have a European visa. So I really don’t know where I’ll be able to go geographically if things go well.”
“From what I’m seeing, people are still in panic. Everyone is waiting for a court decision,” Kuznetsova said.
“I’m not just me from Russia here. I have a lot of Ukrainians, many political students from Venezuela, Afghanistan and Palestinians. I even have a classmate from North Korea.
Ivan Bogantsev, also a native of Russia, had planned to remain in the United States after completing his program at Harvard Graduate School of Education. His wife, currently in Russia and on a Harvard-sponsored visa, is due to arrive for graduation, but it is unclear whether she will be allowed in.
“It seems no one can explain whether we are at risk of deportation,” Bogansesv told CNN. “I think there is absolutely no guarantee of brain drain from this country. I can’t say to what extent, but the environment here is not very friendly.”
However, he said returning to Russia is not an option he is considering.
“I was detained at a rally (in Russia) and I’ll just say that the atmosphere is getting more and more tense. Secondly, most of my friends are essentially labelled (in Russia) as criminals, traitors, or foreign agents.”
Leo Gelden, a Swedish native who is due to graduate next week, told CNN that some of his Harvard friends are still “planning new plans to move to other institutions, especially overseas.”
“I was looking forward to celebrating the start of next week, but now I might leave this place and it won’t look the same as the next semester, because without these international students and their international researchers, the Harvard campus wouldn’t be the same.”
“We are essentially used as poker chips in the White House and Harvard battles and honestly feel very dehumanized.”
CNN’s Katelyn Polantz, Helen Regan, Todd Symons and Isa Soares contributed to this report.
