By Tom Little and Sam Tabahriti
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -When Alfred Williamson packed his bags to travel to Denmark for summer break after a whirlwind first year at Harvard University, he could not wait to return.
Now, the Welsh student fears he may never go back – one of thousands of international students caught in U.S. President Donald Trump’s battle with the Ivy League institution, which has centred on preventing Harvard from enrolling or retaining international students.
Many students have told Reuters they are worried about complaining, for fear of being targeted by the U.S. authorities, and while Williamson said he shared those fears, he felt he had an obligation to speak out.
“When people start to self-silence, we are no longer living in a democracy,” he told Reuters in Copenhagen where he was staying with family. “For me, it’s absolutely critical that I voice my opinion so that we preserve these values that America was founded on. In fact, the ideals of freedom and rights.”
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has repeatedly attacked Ivy League schools, accusing Harvard of fostering violence, antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, without providing evidence.
Last week, his administration revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol international students and said it would force current foreign students to transfer to other schools or they would lose their legal status, in a dramatic escalation of the dispute.
UTTER SHOCK
“When the news hit, I was in complete and utter shock,” said Williamson, an undergraduate who is working towards a double major in physics and government and who described his first year as the best year of his life.
“I didn’t know how to respond; I didn’t know what to feel; I didn’t know what to think; I didn’t know if I’d be an illegal immigrant suddenly, or as they describe people like us, aliens. It was very devastating news.”
Harvard, where international students make up more than a quarter of enrolment, filed a lawsuit last week challenging the order. A federal judge has issued a temporary two-week injunction, but the uncertainty persists.
Williamson said he hadn’t heard anything about his visa, but knew that some classmates had struggled to get renewals.
He said he appreciated Harvard’s response, and the support it had shown to international students at the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has emerged as one of Trump’s most prominent institutional targets.
“That’s the only way you can deal with someone like Trump,” he said. “He will make demand after demand. One demand will turn into three, and three will turn into five.”
Williamson said he was not willing to contemplate the prospect of transferring to a different university, and despite the fears he has over the administration, he is desperate to stay at Harvard, arguing that the international community contributes a lot to the U.S.
But he said the current situation is deeply uncomfortable: “We’re being used like pawns in the game that we have no control of, and we’re being caught in this crossfire between the White House and Harvard, and it feels incredibly dehumanising.”
(Writing and reporting by Sam Tabahriti in London; Editing by Kate Holton and Aurora Ellis)
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