Washington (AP) – The administration of President Donald Trump increased his Battle in progress with Harvardthreatening to revoke the university’s ability to welcome international students while the president called to withdraw Tax exemption status.
The movements increase The challenges of the show of strength Between the White House and the oldest, the richest and most prestigiously the most prestigious university, which became Monday to openly challenge the requests of the administration linked to activism on the campus, anti -Semitism and diversity.
The Ministry of Internal Security ordered Harvard Tuesday Tuesday to hand over the “detailed files” of its Foreign student visa bearers “” Illegal and violent activities “by April 30. The ministry also said that he had canceled two school subsidies totaling $ 2.7 million.
By taking measures against international students and the school’s tax status, the administration has struck two pillars of Harvard, where international students represent 27% of the campus, and the majority of the student body is at higher studies, often conducting eminent research on a national scale. In addition, the school has reached the distinction by attracting the best talents in the world and the great gifts deductible tax from the country’s richest donors.
Audio AP: Trump administration aims at Harvard international students and tax exemption status
President Donald Trump intensifies his current battle with Harvard University. The AP correspondent, Donna Warders, reports.
The federal government has already frozen more than $ 2 billion in subsidies and contracts to the institution of Ivy League.
Leo Gerden, a Senior from Sweden, said that many Harvard international students were “afraid of speaking” because they just feel frequented, the school has put a target on their backs.
“It’s incredibly frightening for people,” said Gerden. “All the student visas right now at Harvard are in danger, and what the Trump administration is trying to do is divided us.”
“Harvard without his international community is simply not Harvard,” added Gerden, who studies the economy and the government. If the institution was unable to admit people from abroad, “it would be incredibly difficult for this university, for its students, for its university community. So we really have to fight with all the means that we must make sure that it does not happen. ”
The threat to Harvard’s ability to welcome international students intervenes while the administration has quietly Deleted the files and ends the legal status international students in country schools. The students were left without clear recourse on how to regain their legal status in the United States while fearing the expulsion.
At least 1,024 students in 160 colleges, universities and university systems saw their visa revoked or their legal status at the end of the end of March, according to an examination by the Associated Press of university declarations, correspondence with school officials and judicial files.
The White House suggests that the tax status was being examined before the post of Trump
The White House suggested that the IRS examine the tax status of Harvard was prior to the post of president on TRUTH Social. The federal tax law prohibits the higher members of the executive power to ask an employee of the IRS conducted or terminate an audit or an investigation.
“All of the IRS’s future actions will be carried out independently of the president, and the surveys of violations of any establishment of his tax status were launched before the president’s truth,” said White House spokesman Harrison Fields.
But a person familiar with the case said that the Treasury Department had managed Andrew de Mello, the IRS actual lawyer, to start the revocation of Harvard’s tax exemption shortly after Trump’s post. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal questions.
Tax exemptions allow universities to receive major donations from the main donors who wish to reduce their tax charges, which has helped to help amass the country’s largest university provision with $ 53 billion.
The tent on Federal money for research In Harvard, the seventh time, the administration has taken such a step in one of the country’s most elite colleges. The government is trying to force compliance with Trump’s political agenda in schools it accuses of pushing “awakened” policies and allowing anti -Semitism to be transmitted.
On Friday, in a letter to Harvard, the administration of Trump called for large government reforms and leadership at university, as well as changes in its admission policies. He also demanded that the university check the views of diversity on the campus and stop recognizing certain student clubs.
In addition, the Chamber’s supervisory committee said Thursday that it would open an investigation into Harvard, accusing the school of a “lack of compliance with civil rights laws”.
The president of Harvard says that the school would not submit to the orders of the administration
Harvard president Alan Garber said on Monday that the university would not comply with the government’s requests. Later in the day, the White House announced the freezing of more than $ 2.2 billion in multi -year subsidies and $ 60 million in contracts.
In a statement published on Thursday, the university said that the latest threats were following “on the heels of our declaration that Harvard will not give up his independence or will not renounce his constitutional rights”.
The school sticks by position and “will continue to comply with the law and expect the administration to do the same”.
Any federal measure taken against a person affiliated with Harvard must “be based on clear evidence, follow the established legal procedures and respect the constitutional rights granted to all individuals,” added the press release on Thursday.
The conservative strategist Christopher Rofo said that the government should respond to the Harvard challenge by reducing all the federal money and stripping non -profit status to Harvard and other IVIes who defy federal orders. Rofo urged the government to use the same tools it used during the civil rights movement to force desegregation.
“Trump has to continue his threat to undo one of the universities of the Ivy League,” said Rufo on Tuesday on social networks. “Cut the funding and look at the imploser university.”
Rofo said that Harvard had discriminated against American white and Asian students, citing events such as end -of -studies celebrations specific to certain ethnic groups, as well as theatrical performance in 2021 exclusively “for members of the black identification public”.
The non -profit status, which is necessary for donations to be deductible from tax, depends on an organization following the rules of the IRS governing lobbying, the activity of the political campaign and the annual declaration obligations, among other requirements.
While it is easy for an organization 501 (c) (3) to maintain its status of tax exemption “, according to the IRS publicationsIt “can be just as easy to lose it”.
The former president of Harvard, Larry Summers, who was also secretary to the Treasury under former President Bill Clinton, denounced the threat of withdrawing Harvard’s status.
“Any respectful secretary of the Treasury, would resign rather that the ministry is an accomplice of the armament of the IRS against a political opponent of the president,” he said on social networks.
For the Trump administration, Harvard presents the first major obstacle in his attempt to Forces change in universities That the Republicans say have become households of liberalism and anti -Semitism.
Trump’s campaign started at Columbia University, which initially agreed in several requests From the Trump administration but took a more embraced tone after Harvard’s challenge. The acting president of Columbia, Claire Shipman, said in a message on the campus on Monday that some of the requests “are not subject to negotiation” and that she read the rejection of Harvard with “great interest”.
Trump has targeted the accused schools to tolerate anti -Semitism Pro-Palestinian protests on American campuses. Some of the government’s requests directly address this activism, calling for Harvard to impose a more difficult discipline on demonstrators and to detect international students for those who are “hostile to American values”.
Archon Fung, professor of democracy at Harvard, called for “friends of academic freedom” and higher education to stand together.
“The government has a huge amount of power – taxation, investigation power,” said Fung. “I don’t know who wins this fight at the end.”
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Educational writers at the Associated Press, Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco and Collin Binkley in Washington, contributed to this report.
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