Us blocks visas for new foreign students in Harvard

On Wednesday, the president of the United States Donald Trump has announced a ban on visas for foreign students who will start attending Harvard University, increasing the repression of its administration on higher education.

“I have established that it is necessary to limit the entry of foreign citizens who try to enter the United States exclusively or mainly to participate in a course of study at the University of Harvard or in a program of exchange visitors hosted by Harvard University,” Trump said in a statement at the end of Wednesday.

The Trump administration was underway with the academic world and Harvard in particular.

The institution of the Ivy League continually attracted Trump’s wrath while publicly rejected the repeated requests of his administration to renounce the control of the recruitment, curricula and research choices.

Trump’s announcement said that his decision will come into force immediately and “will apply for aliens who enter or try to enter the United States to start attending the University of Harvard” through the student and the exchange of exchange visitors.

He added that the current international students who already attended Harvard on various visas have faced a review and risked having “their revoked visas”.

The move was necessary to protect “national security”, says the declaration.

“In my opinion, it presents an unacceptable risk for the safety of our nation for an academic institution to refuse to provide sufficient information, when asked, on known cases of bad conduct and crime committed by its foreign students,” Trump said.

He also accused that “Harvard and his organizations affiliated on the campus continue to deny the equal opportunities of the Americans”.

“It is not in the interest of the United States further composting Harvard’s discrimination against not preferred breeds, national origins, shared ancestors or religions further reducing the opportunities for American students through excessive enrollment in foreign students,” he said.

Wednesday’s edict seems to apply only to Harvard University.

The Trump administration explicitly targeted foreign students, with the Secretary of State Marco Rubio who swears to revoke the visas from students from China “aggressively”.

Last week, while the students graduated, a judge extended a temporary block for Trump’s temptation to prevent Harvard from enrolling in international students.

AFP