Overview

• The State Department has ordered embassies worldwide to halt all new interviews for F, M and J student visas until further notice, as outlined in a cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
• Officials are evaluating a plan to require comprehensive vetting of all student visa applicants’ social media activity, a change expected to significantly slow processing.
• The move is part of a wider administration campaign against alleged campus antisemitism and terrorism, with Harvard University singled out for its recent pro-Palestinian protests.
• Earlier this month the administration froze over $3.2 billion in federal grants and contracts with Harvard and barred it from admitting international students, a ban later paused by a federal judge.
• Trump officials have additionally directed agencies to terminate roughly $100 million in remaining federal contracts with Harvard, intensifying the ongoing legal battles over academic policy.