In response to the Trump administration’s notification to Harvard University today that it is revoking its ability to enroll international students for the 2025-2026 academic year—a decertification that means existing F- and J-visa holders must transfer to another university to maintain their nonimmigrant status—Jonathan Friedman, Sy Syms Managing Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs, has issued the following statement:
“This is a brazen escalation of the Trump administration’s attacks on the higher education sector and continues its efforts to silence dissent. It reduces international students to pawns in a political game. The move is clearly retaliatory against Harvard, and part of the government’s agenda to undermine academic freedom in favor of state-controlled and favored orthodoxy. Furthermore, the demand that Harvard now submit any and all records of a range of expressive activities of nonimmigrant students is authoritarian, plain and simple. The United States is greater for the academic, artistic, and entrepreneurial contributions of people who first came here as international students, many seeking safe-haven from persecution. The administration must stop playing games with people’s lives.”
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Malka Margolies, [email protected], 718-530-3582