April 17, 2025

The Trump administration hit Harvard University with fresh demands late Wednesday, ordering the school to release disciplinary records of international students or risk losing the ability to enroll them at all.

Meanwhile, news broke Wednesday evening that U.S. Treasury officials have moved to ask the Internal Revenue Service to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status.

The unprecedented efforts are the latest by White House officials aimed at pressuring the university to bow to orders that challenge Harvard’s autonomy around academic and policy decisions. The moves came just days after Trump’s antisemitism task force announced it would freeze more than $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts sent to the school after Harvard’s rejection of its broad demands.

The threats are rattling students, staff and leaders at many colleges and universities in the U.S.

According to a Department of Homeland Security press release, Secretary Kristi Noem sent Harvard administrators a letter that commanded the school turn over “detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities” by April 30 — or face the “immediate loss” of a certification that lets international students enroll.

Harvard enrolled 6,793 international students this academic year, or about 27% of its total student population, university data show.

Students walk through Harvard Yard. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

The DHS release also said Noem canceled two department grants worth more than $2.7 million, “declaring (Harvard) to be unfit to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”

Department officials offered in its statement scathing descriptions of the two projects, accusing them of undermining “America’s values and security.” They described an $800,000 grant for “Implementation Science for Targeted Violence Prevention” as “shockingly skewed” because it “branded conservatives as far-right dissidents.” It labeled a $1.9 million “Blue Campaign Program Evaluation and Violence Advisement” grant part of “Harvard’s public health propaganda.”

“With a $53.2 billion endowment, Harvard can fund its own chaos — DHS won’t,” the department wrote in the release.

Harvard leadership immediately fired back Wednesday night, saying in a statement it was aware of the latest DHS notice but that it stands by its statement earlier this week that the school “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”

“We continue to stand by that statement. We will continue to comply with the law and expect the Administration to do the same,” a Harvard spokeswoman said in an email.

President Trump threatened his officials also would go after the university’s tax-exempt status on social media Tuesday, shortly after Harvard said it would not submit to the antisemitism task force’s demands.

Northeastern University professor Julian Fray, an expert in tax law, told WBUR’s Morning Edition that stripping an institution of its tax status would be a “pretty strong” and “very unusual” response.

“The Supreme Court has said it should only be done when the activity involved is contrary to fundamental public policy,” Fray explained.

Fray pointed to one notable example from 1983. Bob Jones University in South Carolina lost its tax-exempt status, because school leaders refused to stop enforcing a ban on interracial student dating. (The conservative Christian university regained its tax-exempt status in 2017, nearly two decades after it had dropped the discriminatory policy.)

She also noted the president lacks the authority to revoke schools’ tax designations, and under a law intended to prevent the IRS from “being politically weaponized,” presidents are prohibited from even suggesting it. His administration has said the IRS investigations began before Trump’s social media post.

If Harvard were to lose its tax-exempt status, the effects would have multiple impacts. First, financial donors would no longer qualify for charity tax deductions. The school’s endowment would also be taxed at a higher rate, Fray said.

This is a developing story and will be updated. The story includes reporting from WBUR’s Martha Bebinger.