The view of us from Singapore.
President Donald Trump's "America First" rhetoric and policies, which have affected trade and led to more restrictive immigration policies, have dented the United States' reputation that was held up in part by the country's prestigious top universities and cutting-edge firms.
23 May 2025 09:30PM (Updated: 24 May 2025 01:18PM) - Channel News Asia - Singapore
Singaporean student Robert (not his real name) never imagined that pursuing a degree at Harvard would entail joining a Signal chat group to monitor the movements of officers from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on campus.
Nor did he imagine that on Thursday (May 22), US President Donald Trump would make good on his threat to block the university from enrolling international students, after accusing the school of "fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus".
This move is set to force existing Harvard students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status in the US. The Trump administration has also threatened to expand the crackdown to other schools.
Mr Robert said: "I found out through a New York Times news notification on my phone. There’s a lot of frustration and confusion, especially because the termination is said to be effective immediately, so it’s not clear if students have begun to accrue unlawful status."
Harvard is one of the Ivy League universities hardest hit by funding cuts to higher education and immigration crackdowns across universities as Mr Trump moves swiftly to reshape both US universities and education during his second term in office, casting a pall on the international student community.
In response to Mr Trump’s latest moves against the university, Harvard sued the Trump administration on Friday and called the revocation of the school's ability to enrol international students a "blatant violation" of the US Constitution and other federal laws.
Mr Robert, who is in his 20s, asked that his name not be published because he feared it could affect his future visa applications to the US.
He was one of many Singaporean students and professionals who spoke to CNA TODAY for this article. Some declined to comment while others spoke on condition of anonymity, wary of being flagged by the immigration authorities known to monitor online activity.
In the first 100 days since Mr Trump began his second term on Jan 20, more than 4,700 international students across various universities had their legal status records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) terminated abruptly.
Although his administration restored the terminated legal statuses of international students in April, for many people, this episode and Mr Trump's latest move against Harvard symbolise a shift in how welcoming the US feels towards foreigners, even those from Singapore, which has long enjoyed strong ties with the superpower.
Mr Robert said: “If you had asked me two months ago, I would have said the strength of the Singapore passport shields me.
“What changed my impression was that Harvard was targeted en masse, including revoking the school’s ability to host international students. My Singaporean passport was not going to shield me from that happening.”
Mr Robert noted that the trajectory of Mr Trump’s policies – such as the immigration crackdown and federal funding freeze or deep cuts for universities including elite Ivy League institutions such as Princeton and Cornell – suggests that Singaporean students looking to study in the US should be cautious.
“I did have a feeling that Trump was going to win. I didn’t expect it to be like this – the speed at which some of this happened or the magnitude of his attacks on higher education," he said.
As America moves towards more restrictive borders, Singaporeans reassess travel, study and business
Greg