‘Sentiment of Fear’: Trump’s Election Sparks Concern Among International Students

When Jorge Zafrilla Díaz ’28, a freshman from Spain, learned of Donald Trump’s electoral victory earlier this month, he was not worried about his own immigration status. He was scared for Harvard.

Zafrilla Díaz said he fears the Trump administration will follow through on a series of threats to restrict federal funding to Harvard, restricting financial aid in the process.

“I’m just kind of scared to see how this election is going to affect Harvard as a whole and as an institution,” Zafrilla Díaz said.

But for more than 6,000 international students currently enrolled at Harvard, Trump’s impending second term raises questions about changes to student visa rules.

On campus, Zafrilla Díaz said the election results have already created a “sentiment of fear” among international students concerned that Trump’s first-term immigration policies will be resurrected.

The last time Trump occupied the Oval Office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement attempted to bar students only taking online classes from living in the U.S., threatening deportation.

Harvard and MIT jointly sued ICE and the Department of Homeland Security over the policy, arguing it was illegal and jeopardized thousands of students at several institutions including Harvard that had switched to online instruction during the pandemic.

“The order came down without notice — its cruelty surpassed only by its recklessness,” then-Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow wrote in an email to affiliates.

While the policy was rescinded by ICE a week later, it fueled fears in 2020 that Trump could use another four years to impose similar restrictions.

Trump also proposed a change to student visa rules to restrict the permits to two or four years instead of the duration of a student’s study. Under the policy, students from countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism or with visa overstay rates over 10 percent would only be eligible for two-year visas.

That proposal was withdrawn in 2021 when President Joe Biden took office.

On the campaign trail in 2024, Trump has also toed a hard-line approach to immigration, vowing to initiate mass deportation orders and accusing immigrants of “attacking” American cities.

Nilay Ersoy ’27, a sophomore from Germany, said she does not think her visa will be affected because she is from “a safe country,” but expressed concern for classmates studying on a visa from China, Taiwan, and Russia.

“It’s such a polarized administration coming in a few months, and it’s not easy,” Ersoy said.

“We’ll wait and watch for now, and hope for the best,” she added.

Less than a week after the election, Pforzheimer House’s international student support tutors invited students to a meeting to discuss “what the election outcome means for your time in the U.S.”

Eliel Sanchez-Acevedo, a residential tutor at Pforzheimer House said the event was organized because Trump’s campaign rhetoric on immigration issues “connect, one way or the other, with international students.”

“We decided that it was going to be a good moment to have a space to hear what are people’s concerns are and to just be with them,” he said.

An international student at Harvard Law School from Mexico, Sanchez-Acevedo said he fears changes to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and Temporary Protected Status protections under Trump. He also said the process for applying for work visas could change in 2025.

“We can definitely reference what things were like in the previous Trump administration, but again, things are different,” Sanchez-Acevedo said. “We don’t know.”

Trump’s second term could put Harvard in a position to defend international students once again, setting up the University to be an opponent of the new administration on immigration policies as well as funding issues.

University spokesperson Sarah Kennedy O’Reilly wrote in a statement that “Harvard’s international students and scholars are an integral part of our community, and we will continue our strong support of them.”

Harvard is also a member of the President’s Alliance for Higher Education and Immigration, a group which lobbies policymakers on behalf of international students.

According to the group’s mission statement, they “support the consideration and adoption of federal immigration policies and practices as well as relevant state policies that honor our values and commitments as educational institutions and press for re-examination of those that do not.”

Ibou Dieye, an international Ph.D. student from Senegal who is also an international student support tutor for Currier House, said international students have reasons to be hopeful. When speaking to international students, Dieye said he tried to alleviate their concerns.

“It’s not up to a man to do or to enact policies or interventions that do damage,” Dieye said, arguing students should have faith in federal legislators.

Dieye, who applied for an H1-B visa during the first Trump administration, said Trump’s opposition to immigrants with H1-B visas did not affect him.

“I survived the Muslim ban being a Muslim myself,” he said.

But while Zafrilla Díaz said he does not feel personally at risk, he said friends from the Middle East are more nervous about the next four years.

“They’re scared because how is that going to change their immigration status?” He questioned. “Are they going to be able to come back after they leave?"

—Staff writer Meghna Mitra can be reached at meghna.mitra@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Rachel Fields can be reached at rachel.fields@thecrimson.com.