Trump seeks extensive student data in pressure campaign to control Harvard
- The San Juan Daily Star
- May 27
- 5 min read
By Michael C. Bender
The latest confrontation between Harvard University and the Trump administration began last month with a far-reaching demand for data on international students.
Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, sent a letter to Harvard requesting, among other things, coursework for every international student and information on any student visa holder involved in misconduct or illegal activity.
Harvard rebuffed parts of the request, and the Trump administration retaliated Thursday. In one of its most aggressive moves so far against the university, the government said Harvard could no longer enroll any international students, who account for about one-fourth of its enrollment.
Noem also expanded her request for records to include any videos of international students, on campus or off, involved in protests or illegal or dangerous activity.
The conflict has only further raised the stakes over the future of America’s oldest and most powerful university.
The administration’s attempt to vacuum up vast amounts of private student data opens a new front in Trump’s crackdown on dissent from his political agenda. The strategy is aimed at realigning a higher education system the president sees as hostile to conservatives by stamping out what he says is antisemitism on campus and the transgender and diversity policies it says are rooted in “woke” ideology.
Harvard counters that it has provided all the data that is legally required and that the administration’s unrelenting pressure campaign — including the termination of billions in federal research grants — amounts to an attempted takeover of the institution, bullying the university into changing what it can teach and whom it can hire.
Harvard said the government’s latest action “is the culmination of an unprecedented and retaliatory attack” on the school’s freedom of speech.
The university sued Friday, arguing that the government had violated its First Amendment rights and had used unfairly broad data requests to justify illegal interference into foundational principles of the university.
“Both Harvard and the Trump administration see this as an all-or-nothing fight,” said David Super, a professor at Georgetown Law School. “Either Harvard will be brought to its knees or the administration will be fully rebuffed.”
The new requests for protest footage also touched on questions about protected speech. Trump officials have argued that the government has the right to expel disruptive foreign students from the country. In its lawsuit, the university said the government had not cited any specific authority to request protest footage.
Harvard’s lawyers argue that colleges and universities have a “constitutionally protected right to manage an academic community and evaluate teaching and scholarship free from governmental interference.” They pointed to case law that protects “not only students and teachers, but their host institutions as well.”
Adam Goldstein, director of strategic initiatives at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free-speech group, said Harvard appeared to have complied with federal law, but he noted the university’s dilemma.
“If Harvard doesn’t send the records, it loses visas,” Goldstein said. But if it did send them, he added, it might be violating federal privacy law and could lose federal funding.
The Trump administration’s hunt for data has become a signature tactic in several investigations into Harvard and other elite universities. But Harvard’s second lawsuit against the Trump administration in two months argues that the administration is not ultimately interested in student data.
Harvard has pointed to Trump’s own words and posts on Truth Social as proof that retribution is the goal.
Trump told reporters Friday at the White House that his administration was considering stopping other universities from enrolling international students, in addition to Harvard.
Similar to Noem’s request for records, Harvard is also facing investigations opened in recent weeks by the departments of Justice and Education that seek a trove of documents and data.
This month, the Justice Department invoked its power under the False Claims Act, a law designed to punish those who swindle the government. The agency demanded records, written statements and sworn testimony from Harvard about its admissions policies.
Without making a specific accusation of wrongdoing, the Justice Department also requested all documents and communications related to the university’s evaluation of undergraduate applicants. The agency also asked for all internal deliberations about the Supreme Court decision that struck down affirmative action and all records related to the university’s compliance with that ruling.
The department also told Harvard to produce all texts, emails, Signal chats and other correspondence from current or former employees discussing Trump’s executive orders earlier this year that revoked policies to support minorities and ended the government’s support of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
That exhaustive request came 10 days after the Education Department had asked for access to data and personnel related to Harvard’s admission policies. A second Education Department investigation, opened on April 17, included a records request that is three pages long — but no specific allegation of misconduct other than a broad mention of “incomplete and inaccurate” disclosures of foreign funding. The university has said its disclosures of foreign funding comply with reporting requirements.
Harvard is also facing investigations by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the administration’s task force on antisemitism. All have been opened since Trump returned to the White House.
On April 16, Noem sent her first letter to Harvard demanding student records that met one of eight criteria. Harvard responded by providing records on thousands of international students, which the university said was legally required.
The department’s general counsel, Joseph N. Mazzara, responded seven days later, saying the data “does not completely address the secretary’s request.” He then repeated Noem’s request for information about any international students who had been involved in illegal or dangerous activity, who had threatened other students or faculty members or who had been engaged in the “deprivation of rights” of others on campus.
Steve Bunnell, a lawyer for Harvard who was previously general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security and served as chief of the criminal division at the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, emailed Mazzara on May 13 to ask which regulation he was citing — in the 200 pages of federal code outlining immigration rules — that compelled the university to hand over disciplinary records.
“We are requesting records pursuant to all our authorities,” Mazzara replied the next day. “Thank you.”
The federal visa program requires universities to disclose changes in a student’s status or disciplinary action related to a criminal conviction. Privacy experts said federal law generally prohibits releasing student information without a subpoena, although international students waive some of their rights.
On May 14, Harvard sent DHS information on several students’ disciplinary records.
One international student had withdrawn from the university. Two others had been placed on probation in April for “inappropriate social behavior involving alcohol.” The university suggested that drunken behavior might not be very interesting to the government but offered to be more helpful if needed.
Harvard also asked for additional clarification on “deprivation of rights.”
The response came from Noem. She did not answer the question and instead booted Harvard from the student visa program — and expanded her request for records.
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