Can Trump ban overseas students from US universities?

Donald Trump has revoked Harvard University's ability to enrol international students, who currently make up over a quarter of its intake.

In a dramatic twist of his "escalating battle" with the Ivy League institution, the Trump administration has also said that thousands of current students must transfer to other universities or leave the country, said The Associated Press.

What did the commentators say?

"How can the federal government dictate which students a private university can and cannot enrol?" said The New York Times. In reality, the US government has "enormous power" over who is allowed to enter the country to study.

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Colleges and universities use a "vast" database, known as SEVIS, or the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, to "manage and track" the enrolment of international students. But this database is operated by the Department of Homeland Security; Trump is exploiting this "vulnerability" by revoking Harvard's access to it, effectively banning overseas students.

The DHS claimed that Harvard has allowed "anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators" to assault Jewish students on campus. Department officials also alleged that Harvard has collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party, hosting and training members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as last year.

This turn of events "drastically escalates" the dispute between the White House and the university, said CNN. Trump had frozen more than $2 billion in funds last month when Harvard said it wouldn't "concede" to his "demands", including reforming its international student programme.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Harvard could restore its status as a host institution for foreign students if it complied with a list of demands within 72 hours. The demands include "requests for a range of records", such as disciplinary records for international students, plus "audio and video recordings of protest activity", said ABC News.

Harvard is likely to challenge the ban in court. The move will "certainly draw a very strong legal challenge", Elliot Williams, former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN.

Although there are "well-established" legal processes in place for revoking a school's certification, said Williams, it doesn't seem that Trump's administration has complied with them, so the university would have a "strong basis" for a legal challenge.

What next?

The government's stance could deter overseas students from studying in the US at all, Pippa Norris, a lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, told The Guardian. "Why would any further international students apply to America, not just Harvard, if they can't know that they’ve got a guaranteed place?"

The administration's actions are likely to benefit other top universities, like Oxford and Cambridge. "The best of the brightest could apply wherever they would," she said. "America, again, is going to have problems as a result."