Letter follows recent DHS attempts to terminate Harvard’s ability to enroll international students on F-1 and J-1 visas

Massachusetts hosts over 80,000 international students, who contribute almost $4 billion to state economy and support over 35,000 jobs in the state

“The Administration’s apparent hostility to international students contributes to an overall climate of fear on campuses. This trend creates a chilling effect that discourages the best and brightest students from around the world from coming to study in the United States…” 

Text of Letter

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) joined U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and the Massachusetts’ Congressional delegation in pressing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons on the Trump Administration’s attacks on international students, particularly last week’s attempt to terminate Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students on F-1 and J-1 visas. 

The letter was also signed by U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), along with Representatives Richard Neal (MA-01), Jim McGovern (MA-02), Stephen Lynch (MA-08), Bill Keating (MA-09), Katherine Clark (MA-05), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Lori Trahan (MA-03), and Jake Auchincloss (MA-04). 

“As members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, we are gravely concerned about the Trump Administration’s attacks on international students,” wrote the lawmakers. “This trend has been particularly damaging for Massachusetts, which is home to one of largest concentrations of higher education institutions and hosts over 80,000 international students, who contribute almost $4 billion to the state’s economy and support over 35,000 jobs in the state.”

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked Harvard’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), the system that allows the university to admit international students — not only blocking Harvard’s ability to enroll new international students, but also interfering with current international students’ ability to legally remain. In effect, this action would allow DHS to arrest, detain, and deport international students who remain at Harvard. Shortly thereafter, a federal judge temporarily enjoined DHS from enforcing the revocation.

“This attack on Harvard and its international students appears to be an attempt to punish the university for not agreeing to the Trump Administration’s April 2025 demands,” wrote the lawmakers.

This is the latest in the Trump Administration’s long pattern of attacks on international students nationwide. Starting in March, the Administration effectively terminated the legal status of over 4,700 international students across at least 48 states and 160 colleges. Often without notice to students or their universities, ICE terminated students’ records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) — records that are “functionally equivalent to having lawful student status” — which exposed students to the “risk of arrest, detention, or removal.” The State Department also revoked many visas, adding to widespread confusion about students’ legal status.

“While DHS and the State Department claimed to target those with a criminal history or history of engaging in campus protests,  some of the impacted students had neither, and in many cases, there was ‘no obvious cause for the revocations,’” wrote the lawmakers.

International students in Massachusetts and nationwide continue to face serious threats, even beyond Harvard’s campus, including: ICE expanding its authority for terminating SEVIS records; not restoring — or re-terminating — students’ legal status; and leaving problematic gaps in records of students’ legal status. Some students who left the country after their visas or records were suspended face significant hurdles to returning. This week, the State Department reportedly ordered its overseas embassies and consulates to stop scheduling any international student visa interviews, causing serious delays.

“The Administration’s apparent hostility to international students contributes to an overall climate of fear on campuses. This trend creates a chilling effect that discourages the best and brightest students from around the world from coming to study in the United States — which harms not only current and prospective international students, but also American universities, U.S. citizen students on campuses, and, in the long term, the nation’s prosperity and economic growth,” concluded the lawmakers.

Text of the letter can be found here.

Rep. Pressley has been a vocal advocate for students attacked by Trump and his unlawful, anti-immigrant, and anti-free speech agenda – including her constituent, Tufts PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was unlawfully abducted and detained by ICE in March. She has also repeatedly spoken out against Trump’s attacks on Harvard.

• On May 11, 2025, Rep. Pressley, Senator Markey, and the Massachusetts community welcomed Rümeysa Öztürk back to Massachusetts following her release from ICE detention in Louisiana.
• On May 8, 2025, Rep. Pressley and her colleagues sent a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seeking more information on the detention conditions of immigrants held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center (CLIPC) and the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center (SLIPC) after an oversight trip to the facilities.
• On May 7, 2025, Pressley, Sen. Markey, and Rep. McGovern applauded the Second Circuit for ordering Rümeysa’s transfer from ICE custody in Louisiana to Vermont and rejecting the Trump administration’s attempt to delay complying with a lower court order to do so.
• On April 25, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the Trump Administration’s abrupt reinstatement of international student visas. 
• On April 25, 2025, Rep. Pressley, Sen. Markey, and Rep. McGovern published a New York Times op-ed on their meeting with Rümeysa Öztürk in detention and warned the American people of the dangers posed by the Trump administration’s unlawful attacks on our constitutional rights to freedom of speech and due process.
• On April 23, 2025, Rep. Pressley and her colleagues visited Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil and conducted oversight at the ICE facilities in Louisiana in which they were detained.
• On April 18, 2025, Rep. Pressley and Sens. Warren and Markey demanded Secretary of State Rubio released any documents related to her arrest after a recent report indicated that an internal State Department memo concluded that the key premise underlying Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk’s arrest and detention was false. 
• On April 3, 2025, Rep. Pressley, along with Sens. Warren and Markey, sounded the alarm on Öztürk’s medical neglect in DHS custody and renewed urgent calls for her release.
• On March 28, 2025, Rep. Pressley, along with Sens. Warren and Markey, led over 30 lawmakers in writing to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Acting Director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Todd Lyons, demanding information about Öztürk’s arrest and detention as well as similar incidents across the country.
• On March 26, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning reports that ICE arrested and detained Rümeysa Öztürk.
• On March 25, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement following reports of ICE activity in Boston and other municipalities in Massachusetts

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