Trump’s war on Harvard shows no sign of stopping

In January 2017, just a week after taking office, US President Donald Trump signed the now-infamous travel ban, barring citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Harvard’s then-president, Drew Faust, issued a sharply worded open letter almost immediately, reaffirming the importance of international students and scholars to the university’s “identity and excellence”. Trump didn’t respond publicly, but it is well known that he holds grudges.

By September that same year, then-attorney general Jeff Sessions announced the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy from the Obama administration for young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children. Harvard responded the same day, with Faust writing that “this cruel policy recognises neither justice nor mercy”. The university offered undocumented students legal counsel and advisory support.

In July 2020, as Covid-19 raged, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency declared that if classes were held online in the autumn, international students would have to leave the US or transfer to a school with in-person instruction. Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a joint lawsuit.