特朗普政府或将禁止数千名国际学生就读哈佛大学。一些国际学生正在反击

【中美创新时报2025 年 4 月 18 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译讯）这是特朗普政府对哈佛大学发出的最新威胁：如果哈佛大学不交出外国学生的纪律记录，联邦政府可能会剥夺其招收外国学生的权利。《波士顿环球报》记者朱莉娅·麦克唐纳·涅托·德尔·里奥和斯宾塞·布尔对此作了下述报道。

国土安全部部长克里斯蒂·诺姆周三发出警告。她指责哈佛大学“向反犹太主义屈服”，纵容“反美、亲哈马斯的意识形态”，并表示必须根除问题外国学生和教师。

哈佛大学或许是世界上最知名的大学，也是美国顶尖的全球性高等教育机构。外国学生占其学生总数的四分之一以上。那么，如果没有来自世界各地的学生，哈佛还会是哈佛吗？如果美国政府把成千上万的国际学生全部遣返回国，他们的工作、学位和未来将面临怎样的危机？

“美国高等教育的一大优势是，我们吸引了来自世界各地最优秀、最聪明的学生，”哈佛大学政府学教授瑞安·埃诺斯说，“他们来到这里，进行探索，丰富我们的课堂和实验室，而我们实际上会切断这些。”

一些哈佛的国际学生和他们的美国同学已经开始反击。周四中午，数百名学生和教授聚集在哈佛校园，手举“爱国者挺身而出反抗暴君”和“言论自由包括巴勒斯坦”等标语。

来自巴基斯坦拉合尔的哈佛学生阿卜杜拉·沙希德·西亚尔在哈佛纪念教堂外发表演讲时表示：“当他们来抓我们时，他们就是来抓我们每一个人的。”

如果我们屈服，哪怕只是一点点，我们就是在向政权投降。而这正是他们想要的。他们想让我们互相攻击。现在，我们比以往任何时候都更需要互相支持。

许多国际学生选择避免公开分享自己的故事或观点，以避免遭到特朗普政府的报复。哥伦比亚大学研究生、亲巴勒斯坦活动人士马哈茂德·哈利勒（Mahmoud Khalil）和塔夫茨大学博士生鲁梅莎·奥兹图尔克（Rümeysa Öztürk）被捕并被拘留，后者目前仍被拘留在路易斯安那州，显然是因为她去年与他人合著了一篇批评以色列的专栏文章。这让他们不敢公开发表言论。

但西亚尔和来自瑞典的高年级学生利奥·格尔登（Leo Gerdén）却公开反对美国政府。 两人都知道自己面临着签证被吊销、拘留甚至驱逐出境的风险。

校方在国际学生圈子里造成了一种令人不寒而栗的效应。有些人时刻警惕自己是否被跟踪，随时携带移民文件，要求将自己的名字从新闻报道中删除，甚至搬出文件上列出的校园宿舍。

然而，Sial 和 Gerdén 采取了不同的方法。

格尔登来自斯德哥尔摩，计划于下个月毕业，获得经济学和政府学学位，他也在集会上发表讲话，敦促哈佛领导层不要屈服于这些最新的要求。

他最近还在学校的学生报纸《深红报》上发表了一篇专栏文章，这是一个引人注目的选择，因为据报道，包括 Öztürk 在内的其他国际学生在撰写或共同签署信件和评论文章后，其合法身份陷入了危险。

“我愿意承担这个风险，因为我认为自我沉默是对威权主义最危险的回应，”22岁的格尔登在周四的演讲后说道。“我们不能让这种恐惧压垮我们。”

伊诺斯说，校园里的气氛既有对哈佛“反击”的满意，也有对未来可能发生的事情的担忧。

“（特朗普总统）真正感兴趣的是压制大学里的异议，”他说。“他想剥夺大学作为自由社会中独立机构的地位。我想，如果有一天我们环顾四周，意识到我们曾经拥有的巨大优势，那就是人们会从世界各地来到这些地方学习，而我们却主动剥夺了它，那将是我们国家最大的遗憾之一。”

美国国土安全部在周三的指令中表示，如果哈佛大学不交出被捕或参与抗议活动的国际学生的记录，它将面临失去招收国际学生的能力。

国土安全部表示：“如果哈佛大学不能证明其完全遵守报告要求，该校将失去招收外国学生的特权。”

据哈佛大学称，该校至少有12名学生和应届毕业生的签证被吊销。美国移民律师协会称，全国范围内，近5000名学生和校友的合法学生身份已被国土安全部终止。

一些签证被吊销的学生表示，他们没有与刑事法庭联系，也没有参与校园活动。其他人则有 未决的刑事案件或被驳回的指控。移民律师表示，许多学生已经选择离开美国。

来自瑞典的哈佛大学四年级学生 Leo Gerdén 在剑桥的一次集会上发表了讲话。

来自瑞典的哈佛大四学生利奥·格登（Leo Gerdén）在剑桥的一场集会上发表讲话。 图片来源：Erin Clark/《波士顿环球报》员工

此次签证撤销正值特朗普政府试图迫使哈佛大学改变政策，并对其治理和学术施加额外监督之际。作为回应，哈佛大学本周采取了非同寻常的举措，表示不会遵守特朗普政府的要求。

作为报复，特朗普政府冻结了与该大学相关的超过 20 亿美元的联邦资金，准备取消该大学的免税地位，并威胁其招收国际学生的能力。

20岁的巴基斯坦哈佛学生西亚尔来自巴基斯坦第二大城市拉合尔，是家中三个兄弟姐妹中的长子。他获得了高中奖学金，也是家里第一个去美国留学的孩子，主修经济学和应用数学。

西亚尔在最近的一次采访中表示，他被哈佛大学录取对他的家人来说是一件“喜事”，“这是我父母付出的所有努力的结晶”。

他说：“这甚至不是我最疯狂的梦想，也不是我家人最疯狂的梦想。”

他的父亲是一名电气工程师，出生于一个农民家庭，家中有八个兄弟姐妹。他的母亲曾任教多年。西亚尔表示，他计划毕生致力于公共服务。现在，他说，他的道德观驱使他帮助领导学生响应特朗普政府的要求。

“这比国际学生的问题大得多，比哈佛国际学生的问题大得多，”西亚尔周四上午在哈佛校园抗议活动上准备发言时说道。“人们需要意识到，我们现在只是被当作筹码玩弄。”

格登觉得自己比其他许多国际学生更有资格表达自己的观点，因为他即将完成学业，而且毕业后不打算留在美国。他打算在中国待一年，通过一家美国私人基金会的奖学金攻读全球事务硕士学位。

周六，Gerdén 和 Sial 还在剑桥公园举行的集会上向数百名学生发表讲话。

“我决定在这里发言，并非毫无畏惧，”西亚尔告诉人群。他说，他的国际同行感到发言“受到威胁”——害怕抗议、旅行和在社交媒体上发帖。

“他们被告知，沉默是更安全的选择，”西亚尔说道，他的声音响彻整个公园。“而每当自我审查成为更理性的选择时，就说明存在根本性的问题。”

《波士顿环球报》的 Nick Stoico、Tonya Alanez 和 Mike Damiano 对本报告做出了贡献。

题图：4月12日，哈佛大学学生阿卜杜拉·沙希德·西亚尔在剑桥的一场集会上发表讲话。西亚尔是哈佛大学的学生，最近被选为学生会联合主席，他是公开反对特朗普政府的国际学生之一。艾琳·克拉克/《波士顿环球报》员工

Trump administration could stop thousands of international students from studying at Harvard. Some are fighting back.

By Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio and Spencer Buell Globe Staff,Updated April 17, 2025, 10:13 p.m.

Harvard student Abdullah Shahid Sial spoke at a rally in Cambridge on April 12. Sial, a student at Harvard and recently elected as co-student body president, is among international students speaking out against the Trump administration.Erin Clark/Globe Staff

It is the Trump administration’s latest threat against Harvard: If the university doesn’t turn over disciplinary records of foreign students, the federal government could take away its right to admit students from abroad.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued the warning Wednesday. Accusing Harvard of “bending the knee to antisemitism” and tolerating “anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology,” she said problematic foreign students and faculty must be rooted out.

Harvard is perhaps the world’s best-known university, the consummate global institution of higher education in the US. Foreign students make up more than one-quarter of its student body. So, without students from all over the world, would Harvard still be Harvard? And what would happen to the thousands of international students who have jobs, degrees, and futures on the line if the US government sends them all home?

“One of the great advantages that American higher education has is that we attract the best and the brightest students from around the world,” said Ryan Enos, a Harvard professor of government, “They come here, they make discoveries, they enrich our classes and our laboratories, and essentially we would be cutting that off.”

Some of Harvard’s international students, and their American classmates, have begun to fight back. At midday Thursday, hundreds of students and professors holding signs with slogans like “PATRIOTS STAND UP TO TYRANTS” and “FREE SPEECH INCLUDES PALESTINE” gathered in Harvard Yard.

“When they come for us, they’re coming for every single one of us,” said Abdullah Shahid Sial, a Harvard student from Lahore, Pakistan, in a speech outside Harvard’s Memorial Church.

“If we cave in, if we cave in even a little bit, we are surrendering to the regime. And that’s what they want. They want us to turn on each other. And now more than ever, we need to have each other’s backs.”

Many international students have opted to avoid sharing their stories or views publicly to avoid retaliation from the Trump administration. The arrest and detention of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist, and Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, who remains in detention in Louisiana, apparently because she coauthored an op-ed critical of Israel last year, has made them terrified about speaking out.

But Sial and Leo Gerdén, a senior from Sweden, are speaking out publicly against the administration. Both know they are risking potential revocation of their visas, detainment, even deportation.

The administration has created a chilling effect in international student circles. Some are looking over their shoulders to see if they’re being followed, carrying their immigration paperwork with them at all times, asking to have their names removed from news articles, even moving out of the campus dorms listed on their paperwork.

Sial and Gerdén, though, have taken a different approach.

Gerdén, who is from Stockholm and is scheduled to graduate next month with a degree in economics and government, also spoke at the rally, urging Harvard leadership not to give in to these latest demands.

He also recently wrote an op-ed in the Crimson, the school’s student newspaper, a notable choice, as other international students including Öztürk reportedly had their legal status put in jeopardy after writing or co-signing letters and opinion pieces.

“It’s a risk I have accepted because I think that self-silencing is the most dangerous response to authoritarianism,” Gerdén, 22, said after his speech Thursday. “We cannot let that fear overwhelm us.”

Enos said the feeling on campus has been a mix of satisfaction Harvard is “fighting back” along with fear for what could come.

“What [President Trump] is interested in is quashing dissent at universities,” he said. “He wants to take away universities as independent organizations in a free society. And I think if we look around one day and we realize that this great advantage we had, which is people would come from all over the world to study at these places, and that we voluntarily took that away, it’ll be one of the greatest regrets we have as a nation.”

In its directive Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said Harvard faces losing its ability to enroll international students if it does not turn over records of international students who have been arrested or have engaged in protests.

“If Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students,” DHS said.

At Harvard, at least 12 students and recent graduates have had their visas revoked, according to the university. Nationwide, nearly 5,000 students and former students have had their legal student status terminated by the Department of Homeland Security, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Some students who’ve had their visas revoked say they have not had any contact with the criminal courts and did not participate in campus activism. Others have pending criminal cases or charges that were dismissed. And a number of students have already chosen to leave the US, immigration attorneys say.

The visa revocations come as the Trump administration tries to force policy changes on Harvard and impose additional oversight over its governance and academics. In response, Harvard took the extraordinary step this week of saying that it would not comply with the administration’s demands.

In retaliation, the Trump administration froze more than $2 billion in federal funds tied to the university, is preparing to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status, and is threatening its ability to enroll international students.

Sial, the 20-year-old Harvard student from Pakistan, is the eldest of three siblings, and comes from Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city. He got a scholarship to high school, and is the first in his family to study in the US, majoring in economics and applied mathematics.

His acceptance by Harvard was a “joyous occasion,” for his family, Sial said in a recent interview, “an accumulation of all the work my parents put in.”

“It wasn’t even in the wildest of my dreams, the wildest of my family’s dreams,” he said.

His father, an electrical engineer, is one of eight siblings born to a family of farmers. His mother was a schoolteacher for many years. Sial said he plans to dedicate his life to public service. Now, he said, his morals have compelled him to help lead the student response to the Trump administration’s demands.

“This is way bigger than international students, it’s way bigger than Harvard international students,” Sial said Thursday morning, as he was preparing to speak at the protest on Harvard’s campus. “People need to realize that we are just being played as poker chips right now.”

Gerdén feels he is in a better position to speak up than many other international students, as he is nearly finished with school and is not planning to stay in the US after graduation. Instead, he intends to spend a year in China, studying for a master’s in global affairs, on a scholarship through a private US foundation.

On Saturday, Gerdén and Sial also addressed hundreds at a rally on Cambridge Common to support students.

“My decision here to speak was not made without fear,” Sial told the crowd. His international peers, he said, felt “threatened” to speak — afraid to protest, travel, and post on social media.

“Silence, they’re told, is a safer option,” Sial said, his voice booming across the Common. “And whenever self-censorship is a more rational option, there’s something fundamentally wrong.”

Nick Stoico, Tonya Alanez, and Mike Damiano of the Globe staff contributed to this report.