‘Panic and confusion’ for Canadians at Harvard after Trump bans foreign students

Harvard University student Thomas Mete was picking up his brother from high school in Ridgeway, Ont., when he got the news that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration was barring the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students.

“It was just complete shock,” said Mete, a Canadian heading into his fourth year at Harvard this fall.

“In a lot of group chats I’m in with other students and other Canadians, there was just a lot of panic and confusion yesterday when we got the initial announcement,” he said on Friday.

Mete is among Canadians at Harvard who say they’re now anxious and uncertain about their futures.

He said he heard about the ban through a media report and “there was no advance notice given.”

“When I accepted my offer to go to Harvard in 2022, something like this was never on the table.“

Harvard enrols almost 6,800 foreign students from more than 100 countries at its campus in Cambridge, Mass. The school did not immediately have a count of Canadians students, but its website says 686 were enrolled in 2022.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s daughter attends Harvard, and the Prime Minister’s Office has not responded to requests for comment.

Harvard University filed a lawsuit Friday morning in federal court in Boston challenging the Trump administration’s decision, describing it as unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House’s political demands.

Hours later, a federal judge blocked the ban from moving forward.

The temporary restraining order stops the government from pulling Harvard’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which allows the school to host international students with visas to study in the U.S.

In a message sent by the school to its international students, Harvard University said the court has set a hearing for May 29 “to decide whether to issue a more enduring injunction” and the situation is “extremely fluid.”

“Thank you for everything you contribute to Harvard and this nation,” the message said. “You matter. Your presence at Harvard matters, and we will fight for you.”

John Gobin, a student from Toronto who just completed his second year at Harvard Law School, says the move has upset him and his schoolmates.

“It’s a very anxiety-inducing and stressful moment,” he said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty created by the action, not knowing if I’ll be able to be at school in September or whatnot, so just feeling very uneasy.”

Gobin said he hopes for a speedy legal resolution to the brewing fight.

“Over the semester there’s been a lot in the news about Harvard, and any time your school is in the news there’ll be some type of secondary distraction,” he said.

“This is a big moment of change in the country, and we’re all reacting, we’re all digesting, we’re all processing, so it just takes extra mental bandwidth when we’re already involved in very arduous studies.”

Gobin said there is a strong international student community and a robust presence of Canadian students at Harvard.

“I feel very blessed to have many Canadian friends at the law school that I can rely on and speak to and confide in,” said Gobin, who is the co-prime minister of the university’s Canadian Law Students Association.

“There’s forums and group chats for Canadians at Harvard and internationals at Harvard to just express … provide anecdotal stories of interactions at the border and how to go about getting visas,” he said.

He said students are trying to digest the new developments and support each other.

“It’s just having other people there who are going through the same situation that you can talk to, bounce ideas off. if anything, it’s therapeutic more than anything,” he said.

Mete said there is a palpable sense of helplessness among Canadian Harvard students he has talked to, as the situation is out of their control.

“We have research projects on campus,” he said. “We have senior theses we’ve started. Our whole lives are tied up in Cambridge and with Harvard. And this move by the Department of Homeland Security really throws all of that up in the air and makes our future very, very fluid.”

Vancouver’s Jacob Lin and Ocean Ma from Richmond, B.C., were on Harvard’s 2024-25 squash roster. Canadian Squash Hall of Famer Mike Way served as coach.

Way, who previously worked with former world No. 1 Jonathon Power, said Canadian players have been a big part of the program since his arrival in 2010.

“They all contributed to the culture and competed well,” Way said in an email. “We’ve won 19 Ivy titles and 14 national championships — none without a Canadian in the lineup.”

The university said the government’s action violates the First Amendment and will have an immediate and devastating effect on more than 7,000 student visa holders at the school.

“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 said in its suit. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”

The Department of Homeland Security announced the action Thursday, accusing Harvard of creating an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus. It also accused Harvard of co-ordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, contending the school had hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as 2024.

— With files from Gregory Strong and The Associated Press.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2025.

Maan Alhmidi and Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press