The Trump Administration has instructed US embassies to stop processing student visa applications to tighten control over America’s higher education sector.

The Secretary of State Marco Rubio has given orders to embassy officials to refrain from scheduling appointments for student visa applicants as they get ready to introduce a screening process for social media activity. This information was disclosed in a cable obtained by Politico.

The cable states, ‘With immediate effect, to prepare for an enhanced social media screening and evaluation process, consular sections are advised against increasing the number of appointments for student or exchange visitor visas (F, M, and J) until further instructions are provided separately, which is expected to happen in the next few days.’

The Institute of International Education Open Doors data report found that in 2023-2024 academic year, the United States hosted a record-breaking 1.1 million international students.

These students generated $43.8 billion through tuition, housing and living expenses, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

Donald Trump has waged war on elite universities, accusing them of antisemitism and blasting their ‘woke’ ideology. 

At the beginning of his second term, Trump ordered the deportation of foreign students who took part in pro-Hamas protests on college campuses in the US. 

Harvard has borne the brunt of Trump’s fire but it is also fighting back just as hard and sued the administration.

The Department of Homeland Security announced on Thursday its revocation of Harvard’s ability to host and enroll students from other countries.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem published a letter she sent to the ivy league university last week instructing the thousands of current students to either transfer to other schools or leave the country.

Trump has demanded to know all of the names and countries of origin of all nearly 7,000 foreign-born students attending Harvard University.

The president said it was unacceptable that 31 percent of the students who attend the famous Ivy League school are ‘from foreign lands.’ 

Harvard filed on Friday a lawsuit against the Trump administration for revoking its right to host foreign students.

The school said in a court filing Trump’s action will have an ‘immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.’

‘With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission,’ Harvard wrote. ‘Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.’

Trump intends to cut the federal government’s remaining contracts with Harvard University, worth about $100 million.

The announcement will be made via a letter from the General Services Administration to federal agencies, which was obtained by The New York Times.

The letter, being sent out later Tuesday, also tells the agencies: ‘Going forward, we also encourage your agency to seek alternative vendors for future services where you had previously considered Harvard.’

The administration has frozen about $3.2 billion in grants and contracts with Harvard, which sued the government in response.

Trump threatened on Monday to take $3 billion in funding away from the Ivy League university to distribute to trade schools instead.

He also used Truth Social to complain that Harvard hadn’t released to the federal government a list of foreign students enrolled in the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school. 

‘I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land,’ Trump wrote Monday morning. ‘What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!’

The president and his Republican allies have claimed that Harvard is ‘antisemitic’ for allowing pro-Palestinian protests to take place on campus amid the current Gaza war.

‘We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country,’ the president wrote in a second Truth Social post.

‘Harvard is very slow in the presentation of these documents, and probably for good reason!’ he continued. ‘The best thing Harvard has going for it is that they have shopped around and found the absolute best Judge (for them!) – But have no fear, the Government will, in the end, WIN!’

Last week Judge Allison Burroughs, a 2014 Obama appointee, temporarily paused the Trump administration’s move to cancel Harvard’s student visa program.

Harvard said that canceling the program, which includes 7,000 visas and amounts to around a quarter of the Ivy’s student body is a ‘blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act.’

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security moved to cancel the program after the university failed to provide the government with extensive behavioral records of visa holders in the student body.

Notably, the president has several close associates who were international students educated in the US, including senior advisor Boris Epshteyn, who helped Trump put together his legal team for criminal cases.

Epshteyn was born in Russia and emigrated to the United States, and met Eric Trump as a student at Georgetown University.