Harvard Staff Warn International Students of Airport Searches, Social Media Screening

Updated July 5, 2025, at 1:14 a.m.

At an information session with more than 500 attendees, Harvard staff told international students to expect tight screening at Boston Logan International Airport and keep a careful handle on their internet presence, which could be vetted for pro-Palestine posts.

They told students they did not know whether it was best to come to the U.S. as soon as possible — but that students seeking visa appointments should book any that are available.

The hour-long Zoom webinar was led by Harvard International Office immigration services director Maureen Martin and by Jason Corral, a staff attorney at the Harvard Representation Initiative, a Harvard Law School clinic that provides free immigration consultation to Harvard affiliates.

Martin and Corral fielded pre-submitted questions and briefed attendees on the status of Harvard’s fight with the Trump administration over the standing of its international students. The meeting drew such high interest that it hit Zoom’s capacity and many students were initially unable to listen.

This description of the meeting is based on conversations with attendees, two sets of meeting notes, and a partial transcript.

In early June, some international students and researchers were detained at Boston Logan or returned to their home countries, even though a judge had imposed temporary restraining orders to prevent the Trump administration’s orders from taking effect.

But after the judge issued preliminary injunctions against the orders last week, Martin and Corral said, students who were blocked at the border have entered or are on track to enter the U.S.

Some students said Corral implied that the customs process at Logan may be stricter than other entrance points — including New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, and the Los Angeles International Airport. And the HRI has been instructing Iranians to avoid Logan altogether, Corral said during the meeting.

In a Thursday statement, Corral wrote that there was “not enough evidence to say definitively that any airport is better or worse.”

A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson did not respond to questions on whether customs enforcement is heightened at Logan and whether any changes are related to Harvard. A Massachusetts port authority spokesperson wrote that Massport is “not aware of any changes to CBP enforcement at Logan” and directed The Crimson to CBP.

CBP has extensive authority to review the electronic devices and online presence of people attempting to enter the U.S., and in at least one high-profile case, a former Columbia student was blocked from entering the U.S. by customs officers who had access to his internet profile — even since-deleted posts.

According to an attendee’s notes, Martin and Corral said neither the HIO nor HRI knows the scope of the CBP’s review, whether it is conducted by humans or artificial intelligence, and what content is considered a red flag. But posts about Palestine have been targeted.

One Harvard-affiliated researcher who studied the Israel-Palestine conflict and posted about it on their social media account was denied entry into the U.S., Martin and Corral said at the Thursday meeting. To avoid having social media accounts flagged, Martin and Corral encouraged students to take caution in making jokes online — especially anything violent.

Martin and Corral advised students that CBP has the right to search their electronic devices at the border, and that anything saved on a hard drive could be screened. Agents might find a device suspicious if it was wiped before being turned over, they said.

The State Department has also started vetting Harvard students’ social media accounts for posts it considers antisemitic — and warned that private accounts could be considered suspect. After the directive was announced, visa applicants were instructed to make their social media accounts public so that embassy officials could review them.

Martin and Corral said they believed social media vetting for visa applicants by the State Department was performed by AI.

The State Department stopped scheduling new visa interviews at the end of May. After a three-week pause, scheduling resumed — but Martin and Corral said the interruption hit at the worst possible time for students seeking visas for the fall.

They advised students to take any available appointments, even if the closest dates were after the start of the school year. That would give students the opportunity to request an expedited appointment, they said.

Martin and Corral told attendees that they have seen more students than normal ask about the possibility of taking a gap year or transferring schools.

Harvard’s battle to keep its international students began in earnest when the Department of Homeland Security announced it had revoked the University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which allows it to host affiliates on F-1 and J-1 visas, on May 22.

The following day, Harvard sued and was granted temporary relief by United States District Judge Allison D. Burroughs.

But on May 28, the DHS gave Harvard officials a notice that it would still seek to revoke Harvard’s SEVP certification, initiating a 30-day window during which the University could demonstrate compliance with federal requirements. That window closed on Friday.

A Harvard spokesperson wrote on Monday that Harvard responded to the DHS’ notice and is “engaging in the administrative process in good faith and as required by law.” Martin and Corral said that Harvard could appeal a revocation of its SEVP status in court if and when it is revoked.

How the courts will rule on Harvard’s SEVP status is only one area of uncertainty. In early June, Donald Trump issued a proclamation barring entry to the U.S. on Harvard-sponsored F and J visas. The proclamation was swiftly blocked by Burroughs, but the Trump administration has now appealed her order.

According to a transcript of part of Thursday’s meeting, Corral said there was no way to tell how long it would take for the case to be heard.

“People often ask me, ‘well, how long will this whole thing take?’ ‘Should I get back to the United States?’” Corral said. “The short answer is, we can’t say definitively.”

If the proclamation goes back into effect, incoming students and researchers may no longer be able to cross into the U.S. — a potentially devastating but still limited outcome for Harvard.

But, Corral said, “if SEVP is taken away from us in a worst-case scenario, we’re all in trouble, whether we’re here in the United States, or whether we’re abroad.”

“There might be some personal factors that play into where you might want to be in the event that that happens, but your ability to attend Harvard will necessarily be impacted if SEVP is taken away,” he added. “Travel will probably not be high on the list of your worries in that scenario.”

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

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