This story is syndicated from The Standard, the newspaper of The American School in London in London, England. The original version of the story ran here.
Editor’s note: *Indicates source would only agree to be interviewed with the condition of anonymity.
The Trump administration announced it would prevent international students from attending Harvard University May 22. As a result, Harvard would be blocked from further enrolling international students, and all currently enrolled international students would have to leave or risk having their visas revoked, according to The New York Times.
Harvard has since been granted a temporary restraining order, effectively pausing the proceedings of the ban. A hearing between the Department of Homeland Security and Harvard took place May 29. At the hearing, a federal judge said she would stop the Trump administration’s efforts to alter Harvard’s policies on international students indefinitely. However, on June 4, Trump signed a proclamation banning international students from entering the U.S. to attend Harvard for a minimum of six months.
The American School in London educates a wide range of international students, many of whom go on to attend college in the U.S. While some ASL students are U.S. citizens, many attend American universities, such as Harvard, on student visas. Given their unique stake in the issue, ASL students, alumni and faculty have had various reactions to the initial announcement of the ban.
ASL junior Rian Puri, who is not a U.S. citizen, said he was shocked by the news as “it didn’t seem like something that made sense.”
Similarly, ASL junior Bia Caseiras said she was disappointed by the Trump administration’s actions.
“I was kind of disgusted, for one thing, and I felt really scared for what this means for the future, what this means for international students,” Caseiras said.
Puri said he saw the ban on international students as an escalation of the relationship between President Donald Trump and Harvard. ASL University Advisor Anne Richardson said the severity of the ban came as a surprise.
“It was certainly not something that I had anticipated,” Richardson said. “It is a significant escalation in the disputes between Harvard and the administration.”
Moreover, ASL alum Emma Lucas, who currently attends Harvard, said the news of the ban on international students was “just as unexpected to us [ Harvard students] as it was to the public.”
Jesse*, a current Harvard student and ASL alum, said the Trump administration has been attempting to unconstitutionally accumulate power, a motivator for challenging universities.
“A key theme of this second Trump administration is consolidating power, specifically into his own version of the executive branch,” Jesse said. “Higher education in the United States, no matter where it is, has always represented a distinct locus of power in the country and he wants to undermine that.”
Richardson said the inconsistency of the Trump administration’s actions has been a pattern since the president’s inauguration.
“This is something that we’ve been dealing with ever since January, is that things just change from day-to-day,” Richardson said. “What happens one day can be reversed the next day or the next week.”
Jesse said international students create a global community at Harvard and deserve their enrollment.
“Harvard is in America, but America is part of the world,” Jesse said. “Having those international perspectives is vital, no matter what subject you study. These are students who’ve worked incredibly hard in their home countries, just like every Harvard student has.”
Jesse said the benefits international students bring to Harvard are universally applicable to other educational environments.
“International students bring the world to Harvard,” Jesse said. “Any university that admits international students benefits from greater diversity of viewpoints and backgrounds. That kind of diversity is something every institution should strive for.”
Richardson said the university advising team has already “checked on” all ASL students who are enrolled or applying to enroll at Harvard. Furthermore, Richardson said the university advisors have been monitoring the situation and have advised international students to take precautions.
“The students that are mostly affected are the students who want to study in the United States, who have earned places at the United States, who need visas,” Richardson said. “Those are the students that are going to be mostly affected at the moment, and this is something that we’ve been very careful to message about for the past couple of weeks.”
Additionally, Richardson said the university advising team has been counselling students to be aware of how their prospective universities have been interacting with the federal government.
Puri said he fears the ban at Harvard could mark a precedent for other schools, and the “U.S. is looking less and less like an option” for his university experience.
Lucas said the Trump administration’s relationship with Harvard has affected the university’s student body significantly.
“It’s been extremely disruptive, and I would say more so than a lot of other events on campus,” Lucas said. “With all the media coverage, news outlets, helicopters flying overhead, kids not knowing whether, you know, they’ll be able to come to class one day.”
However, Lucas said she experiences a “weird edge case,” as she understands elements of the international student experience without being under federal persecution.
“I am a U.S. passport holder, but at the same time, I’m technically an international student on an administrative level,” Lucas said. “I’m also not the one who’s under target from Trump’s administration.”
Lucas said the situation has created a “feeling of frustration” among international students.
“They’re caught between the middle of two administrations, one federal and one university, and they really can’t do anything about it,” Lucas said. “There is an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.”
In 2020, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that international students completing remote coursework as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic would not be able to remain in the U.S. In response, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed lawsuits and restraining orders against the government, successfully overturning this ban. Jesse said this serves as “past evidence” for Harvard’s successful opposition to the government.
“I’m just kind of hoping that that same behavior will continue again, and the fact that the courts responded very quickly with the temporary injunction as well is, like, good news,” Jesse said.
Moreover, Richardson said, although she does not believe the impact of the administration’s ban will spread immediately, it is difficult to predict the Trump administration’s next actions.
“I don’t think this is something that is going to, you know, spread to the universities, to certain universities tomorrow,” Richardson said. “In that sense, however, again, the stories and the orders change on a daily basis, and so much of this is a wait and see, and then, of course, the courts will get involved as well. We’re in this kind of backwards and forwards situation at the moment.”
Richardson said due to this unpredictability, it is important that ASL students consider alternative options when applying to U.S universities.
“I want to emphasize that there are lots and lots of university opportunities for them [international students] outside of the U.S.,” Richardson said. “We have been encouraging students who are looking primarily at the U.S., to have a plan B, a plan C, a plan D. You know, Canada is a plan B. The U.K. can be a plan B. There are a growing number of amazing programs in English being offered all over Europe.”
Puri said he hopes that Harvard’s response will set a clear boundary between private institutions and federal power, and the university’s win could serve as a model for international student policy going forward.
“The best case would be that Harvard wins this lawsuit, and it gets this kind of ban, gets taken away, and then also that actually would create some more security in the future for all of these international students like me,” Puri said.
Lucas said the student body is grateful for Harvard’s opposition to the Trump administration’s actions.
“I’m so pleased that they are taking action, and they really are taking the side of the students and making people feel as supported as they can in such a time of confusion,” Lucas said.
Jesse said they are proud Harvard is taking a stand for their values of student voice and institutional independence.
“What the Trump administration is doing is unconstitutional, trying to limit free speech for students, professors, and faculty,” Jesse said. “I’m proud to be part of a university that defends freedom of expression as a core value of higher education.”