Multiple international students who attend Harvard have decried the Trump administration's decision to yank the university's certification for its international student program, asserting they're being used as "poker chips" in the battle between the administration and Harvard.
The Trump administration on Thursday informed Harvard that it was revoking its ability to enroll foreign students in light of Harvard failing to address and eliminate the hostile campus environment for Jewish students.
A judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from revoking the program in the wake of a lawsuit filed by Harvard.
Prior to the ruling by U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, foreign students said they felt like they were caught in the middle.
"And then being dehumanized and disrespected in a manner where they're being used as poker chips … by the Trump administration," Pakistani Abdullah Shahid Sial, student body co-president at Harvard, told CNN.
"It's a very demeaning way to treat the brightest minds in the world. To treat anybody in the world, but this all happened to be the ones who are the best at what they do. Now they're being literally kicked out of the country. That's a low I never thought I would experience, that level of disrespect," Sial added.
A second Harvard international student also hit on the "poker chip" talking point.
"[Trump is] going after Harvard and is using international students as poker chips in his grand game," Alfred Williamson, a rising sophomore from Denmark, told MassLive.
Williamson called the Trump administration's move "authoritarian" as did a third foreign Harvard student.
"It's part of a bigger battle between authoritarianism and democracy and we are kind of in the middle of it right now, and we're the most recent victim," Austrian Karl Molden, a rising junior, told MassLive.
Roughly 27% of Harvard's undergraduate and graduate students are international.
Sial said attending Harvard is a "two-way street" for foreign students and the U.S.
"From our side, we get an incredible education. From the other side, Harvard also benefits, the U.S. also benefits from having the best in the world to come to the university to study," he said.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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