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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 19, 2025

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In related news Trump administration just revoked Harvard's ability to enroll international students by terminating the Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification. Apparently this will also force their current exchange students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status.

Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification

It's an interesting day when the lookup for a university-oriented program takes you to an ICE website.

Certification is the process schools go through to receive authorization from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enroll F and/or M nonimmigrants. Within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), SEVP reviews schools that desire to enroll nonimmigrant students to determine denial or approval of certification.

From a guardian article elaborating the letter-

“The revocation of your Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification means that Harvard is prohibited from having any aliens on F- or J-nonimmigrant status for the 2025-2026 academic school year. This decertification also means that existing aliens on F- or J- nonimmigrant status must transfer to another university in order to maintain their nonimmigrant status,” Noem continued.

Meanwhile, Harvard graduation occurs... a week from today, on 29 May.

My sympathies to foreign students at Harvard thrown into uncertainty by this.

It will, however, be interesting to see how Harvard's position changes. I imagine a court case is imminent. I doubt it will resolve things.