Trump Admin Pauses All Student Visa Interviews, May Include Social Media Vetting: Report

The Trump administration has paused all new interviews for foreign student visa applicants, and is may institute social media vetting, according to a cable obtained by Politico.

In the Tuesday cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the administration has ordered US embassies and consular sections to pause scheduling new interviews – a move that could severely slow down student visa processing, and hurt many universities such as Harvard which rely heavily on foreign students.

“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued septel, which we anticipate in the coming days,” reads the cable. (“Septel” is short for “separate telegram.”)

According to the report, the administration has already imposed some social media screening requirements largely aimed at returning students who may have participated in protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The administration has been trying to crack down on universities, especially elite ones such as Harvard, that it sees as too liberal and accuses of allowing antisemitism to flourish on their campuses. At the same time, it is carrying out immigration crackdowns that have swept up a number of students as well. -Politico

Earlier Tuesday, the NY Times reported that the Trump administration is set to cancel the federal government’s remaining federal contracts with Harvard University – worth some $100 million.

In a letter to the university, the administration instructs agencies to “find alternative vendors” for future services.

Contracts with about nine agencies would be affected, according to the administration official.

Examples of contracts that would be affected, according to a federal database, include a $49,858 National Institutes of Health contract to investigate the effects of coffee drinking and a $25,800 Homeland Security Department contract for senior executive training. Some of the Harvard contracts under review may have already been subject to “stop work” orders. -NY Times

“Going forward, we also encourage your agency to seek alternative vendors for future services where you had previously considered Harvard,” the letter states.

The latest cuts represent what one administration official told the outlet amounted to a ‘complete severance’ of the government’s longstanding business relationship with Harvard.

The Trump administration has demanded that universities reject students who are “hostile to American values.”

Harvard, meanwhile, has filed a lawsuit seeking the restoration of more than $3 billion in federal funding. In a separate lawsuit, the university has asked a federal court to reinstate its right to enroll international students – which Judge Allison D. Burroughs temporarily reinstated. A hearing on Thursday has been scheduled to determine whether the order should be extended.