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Tarun S. Sasirekha ’27, a student from India, was planning to spend the summer researching with a professor in Japan before returning home to Chennai for his mother’s 50th birthday in August — a plan he had finalized over winter break.
But out of fear that the Trump administration would bar him from entering the country again as an international student at Harvard, Sasirekha canceled both plans and stayed put.
The Trump administration repeatedly attempted to prevent Harvard from hosting international students in the spring, and the case was still pending over the summer even though a federal judge had temporarily preserved international enrollment. The University’s international office had been warning students to reconsider travel and avoid Boston Logan Airport.
“Every HIO member I talked to were like, ‘Please don’t go,’” Sasirekha said. “They just said, ‘Don’t go, don’t leave the country.’” He received free Harvard summer housing and dining hall access.
Though Harvard’s legal battle over international enrollment was not resolved by Wednesday’s ruling on federal funding, the University and White House are currently negotiating the terms of a settlement that would also end attempts to prevent international students from attending Harvard, according to the New York Times.
But international students did not know that when they packed up their dorms and left campus in the spring.
Days after most students had left campus, the Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard’s Student Exchange and Visitor Program certification, which every student visa holder at the University relies on to attend the school and stay in the country.
The revocation was temporarily blocked in court, and international students were left to weigh their own risks over the summer when deciding whether to take internships abroad or visit family. The Trump administration’s decision to appeal the block in June only introduced more risk into their calculus.
Ismail Assafi ’27, an international student from Morocco, said that dilemma meant he spent more time away from home.
Assafi was hoping to spend the beginning of summer at home in Morocco with his family before returning to Harvard to conduct research with a professor. But after the DHS’ threat in May, Assafi said he did not want to be caught “waiting for some crazy thing to happen.”
“You have no idea how these things come together,” he said. “It’s completely unpredictable, so I was like, ‘Might as well just stay in the country.’”
Assafi canceled his trip and managed to secure University housing for the time he had planned to be away.
Rumors of sweeping travel restrictions had been swirling since Trump took office in January. In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the administration had already revoked more than 300 student visas, fueling concerns that Harvard’s international population could soon be at risk.
And on April 6, Harvard announced that it had discovered three current students and two recent graduates with revoked visas.
The next day, Woodbridge International Society Co-President Saskia Hermann ’28 sent a reminder to WIS members that the application for on-campus summer housing would close that evening. She wrote that she had met with HIO officials, who told her that international students who applied would not be rejected because leaving the country could put a student’s ability to return in jeopardy.
Hawraz H. Jamal ’25, who is from Iraq, also decided not to risk traveling outside the U.S., though he had planned to return home for the summer and work remotely for a Singaporean venture capital company.
He managed to secure Harvard housing after explaining his situation to the HIO, but it meant staying up all night to work on Singapore time.
“There was times where I had to be up at 2 a.m.,” he said.
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But not every student chose to upend their summer plans. Hunter M.J. Haynes ’27, who is from New Zealand, said leaving was worth this risk.
“After talking with the HIO and with my parents, I came to the, in some ways cynical view, that if it ever got to a point in which I was denied entry back into the country with my passport, perhaps it’s a sign that I don’t really want to be there, or should be in this country anymore anyway,” Haynes said.
“Whatever will be, will be. Whatever won’t, won’t,” he added.
Still, Haynes — who traveled to Australia, India, and parts of Southeast Asia over the summer — acknowledged that he may have changed his plans if he were from a country with stricter entry requirements into the U.S.
“I think if I held a passport that wasn’t from New Zealand and was perhaps from a country that has a lot more stricter visa entry requirements into the U.S. — or has a much less favorable relationship with the country — I probably would have changed my plans quite considerably,” he said.
Lenny R.A. Pische ’27, who is from Italy, was in Brazil when the DHS first revoked Harvard’s SEVP status on May 22. He thought about rescheduling his return to the U.S., or forgoing plans to attend Harvard’s summer school in Shanghai later in the summer, but ultimately kept both arrangements in place.
When he came back to the U.S. through New York on May 27 — days after a judge granted Harvard the temporary block in their lawsuit against the threats to international student enrollment — he faced no difficulty at the airport.
“I was asked zero questions, and literally nothing happened,” said Pische, a former Crimson News editor.
The HIO offered several sessions with students throughout the summer to answer questions and provide updates on the ongoing court battle. But without a conclusion to the legal dispute, many students were still left to wonder about the future of their college career.
Alfred F.B. Williamson ’27, a student from the United Kingdom who studied abroad in Denmark, said the mental toll of the prolonged struggle between Harvard and the White House made it impossible to concentrate on his program.
“I wasn’t able to live in the present,” Williamson said. “I wasn’t able to focus on what was in front of me in the way that I expected to be able to, because in the back of my mind there was this battle going on between Trump and Harvard.”
While most international students were able to make it back to campus this fall, at least one residential life staff member was not as lucky.
Thayer Hall proctor Hannah M. Desouza was unable to obtain a valid visa in time for the beginning of the school year. Oak Yard Resident Dean Madeleine A. Currie wrote that she would hire a replacement as soon as possible in a September 3 email to students in the affected entryway.
Desouza wrote in an August 23 email to her entryway that she was facing visa processing issues. She did not respond to a request for comment.
But for students, there are several upcoming breaks that will once again raise the question of travel safety. Sasirekha, the student from India, said that while spending the summer in Cambridge alleviated his visa worries, it didn’t ease the strain of being away from home.
“At this point, I’m flying back home this winter, no matter what happens,” Sasirekha said. “If you want to take my visa, just take it. I don’t care anymore.”
—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.
