Penn, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore join 48 higher education institutions in signing the brief, which touts the benefits of international students to the U.S. The document states, in part: “Those who come from abroad to study and research in the United States enrich and strengthen our country in innumerable ways. These benefits are unattainable when schools are prohibited from enrolling international students because they do not pass the government’s ideological litmus test.”
International House Philadelphia has been an advocacy group for Greater Philadelphia’s population of international students since 1918. Its executive director, Bill Keyes, said that higher education institutions supporting Harvard in court “likely recognize that any policies jeopardizing international enrollment represent an existential risk.
“We cannot afford for students from around the world to second-guess whether their futures are secure here,” Keyes said.
Keyes noted that the federal government’s immigration crackdown and its position on international students has resulted in a 17% decrease in enrollment from overseas at U.S universities, as of fall 2025. According to a study from NAFSA: Association of International Educators, this drop is estimated to have cost the U.S. economy $1.1 billion and 23,000 jobs.
“The policy changes affecting employment-based immigration are already leading to the hemorrhaging of early-career talent the American economy really can’t afford to lose,” Keyes saod.
Jesse Ruhl, director of Philadelphia House, another advocacy organization, said international students are currently facing “overwhelming, troubling and even heartbreaking” levels of anxiety.
“That was already in place, of course, [due to] moving to a new country, a new school, a new language, new friends. But now on top of that, we have this sensation that international students are unwelcome here and that Big Brother is looking over their shoulder to see if they’re going to step out of line in any way, including their freedom of speech opportunities,” he said.
A study conducted by Campus Philly found that more than 20,000 international students enroll in colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area annually. Ruhl said there is a “difference between looking at the international community as statistics as opposed to meeting with them, having fellowship with them, sharing with them.”
Working with the international community is “a wonderful opportunity to serve our brothers and sisters throughout the world,” he said.
The brief warns of the potential future implications of allowing political ideology to govern university policy.
“Even if one agrees with the current administration’s criticisms of Harvard’s academic community, what happens when the shoe is on the other foot down the road?” the brief states. “The pendulum of politics will inevitably swing in another direction. When it does, are colleges and universities, together with their faculty, researchers and students, forced to swing with it?”
It is not clear when the court will rule on the lawsuit.