Hundreds Rally to Support International Students, Cheer Harvard’s Rejection of Trump’s Demands

More than 500 Harvard affiliates and Cambridge residents gathered on the steps of Memorial Church on Thursday afternoon to rally in support of international students after the Trump administration threatened to revoke the University’s eligibility to host them.

Faculty and students delivered speeches urging Harvard to stand unified in the face of Trump’s threats to deport international students and maintain its stance established when Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 publicly rejected the administration’s demands.

“They want us to turn on each other, and now more than ever, we need to have each other’s backs,” said Abdullah Shahid Sial ’27, the incoming co-president of Harvard College’s student government. “We cannot, at any cost, leave anyone behind.”

“This is a conversation which includes all of us, because when they come for one of us, they’re coming for every single one of us,” Sial, who is from Pakistan, said.

The Department of Homeland Security sent Harvard a letter on Wednesday threatening to remove the University’s ability to enroll international students unless it shared information about international students’ disciplinary records and protest participation.

The communication came just two days after the Trump administration pulled more than $2.2 billion of Harvard’s federal funding in response to Garber’s rejection of the administration’s demands, which would have escalated its monitoring of international students.

Since Garber’s defiant email, the University has not issued any additional statements regarding Trump administration moves other than reaffirming it.

Leo Gerdén ’25, an international student from Sweden, urged Harvard not to capitulate to Trump’s conditions for hosting foreign students, saying that “for every demand we accept, there will be a new letter next week with new demands of what professors to fire, what subjects we can talk about, and what friends we have to turn in.”

“If we sell our soul to combat authoritarianism, then we have let the authoritarians win,” Government professor Ryan D. Enos said in a speech.

During the event, protesters held signs saying “Thank You Harvard!” “patriots stand up to tyrants,” and “courage is contagious.”

Anurima Bhargava ’96 applauded the University for rejecting the Trump administration’s demands and said that alumni supported Harvard in its fight against the White House.

“We stand with you, and we stand with Harvard against this administration’s attempts to narrow our freedoms to learn, to think, to act and to dictate who can wield those freedoms,” Bhargava said.

During Wednesday’s protest, rumors of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence in the Yard ran rampant in campus groupchats and on Sidechat, a social media app that allows users to publish posts anonymously. Two Harvard University Police Department officers said during the protest that they were not aware of any ICE presence in the Yard.

“That would be news to me,” one officer responded when asked by a Crimson reporter if ICE officers had entered the Yard. University and HUPD spokespeople declined to comment.

Unlike for recent pro-Palestine protests, Harvard Yard remained open to the public for the duration of the event, enabling non-Harvard affiliates to participate in the demonstration.

Attendees briefly participated in a call-and-response chant of “academic freedom is freedom for all — there is no Palestine exception.”

Event speakers also spoke in front of a large banner which said “Free Speech Includes Palestine.”

Wednesday’s protest merged what was initially supposed to be two rallies: the first organized by faculty earlier this week to “applaud” Garber’s Monday response and the second organized by students late Wednesday night to stand in solidarity with their international peers.

Though all of the speakers expressed support for international students, not everyone lauded Garber’s response to the White House’s demands.

Harvard Kennedy School Professor Sandra S. Smith said she was “not here to celebrate,” adding that “I categorically reject the notion that Garber deserves praise for defending our academic freedoms.”

Instead, Smith pointed to the recent dismissals of leaders at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, severance of ties with Birzeit University in the West Bank, and suspension of Harvard Divinity School’s Religion, Conflict, and Peace initiative as examples of how Harvard administrators have “quashed or silenced” Palestine-related activities on campus.

“Forgive me for being a bit skeptical when Garber writes that the Harvard community will work together to find ways consistent with law to foster and support a vibrant community that exemplifies respect and embraces difference,” Smith added.

History professor Kirsten A. Weld — who voiced similar criticisms of the University’s actions — said that Garber “did the right thing by refusing to capitulate.” Weld added, however, that “his job now is to lead a battle with existential implications for all of U.S. higher education.”

“It’s going to take solidarity. But it’s also going to take vigilance because this University cannot save itself if it leaves any of its people behind,” Weld said. “In particular, it must fight with every means at its disposal to protect our international students and scholars.”

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.