Northwestern University has reached a sweeping agreement with the federal government that lifts a freeze on hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding. The U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Services jointly announced Friday that Northwestern will pay $75 million to the Treasury through 2028 in exchange for regaining access to nearly $790 million in previously frozen funds, according to Newsweek.
Under the deal, Northwestern must eliminate race-based preferences in admissions and hiring.
The university is also required to implement system-wide anti-discrimination reforms, mandate anti-Semitism training for students, faculty, and staff, and file quarterly compliance reports with federal officials.
In exchange, the Trump administration will end all ongoing investigations, lift the funding freeze, and allow Northwestern to apply for future federal grants and contracts.
Northwestern interim president Henry S. Bienen acknowledged the impact of the freeze on the university community.
“We understand how difficult the past seven months have been since our federal research funding was frozen, and that many of you have felt the impacts deeply and personally,” Bienen said.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon praised the agreement.
“The Northwestern agreement is a huge win for current and future Northwestern students, alumni, faculty, and for the future of American higher education,” McMahon said.
The agreement comes amid a national debate over civil rights enforcement, university protest responses, and the role of the federal government in overseeing academic institutions.
Other colleges and universities facing similar scrutiny may now look to the Northwestern settlement as a signal of how federal agencies plan to handle civil rights compliance moving forward.
It is another victory for President Trump, who touted his many wins during a meeting of his Cabinet on Tuesday.
The meeting comes as the Department of Homeland Security pushes for what officials describe as a “full travel ban” on select countries.
The move follows the November 26 shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., by an Afghan asylee — an incident that prompted immediate policy action across multiple agencies.
In the days since the attack, the State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have suspended visa processing and immigration benefit requests for Afghan nationals both overseas and inside the United States.
The halt includes Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for individuals who previously assisted U.S. military operations during the Afghanistan war, as well as other visa categories that had been exempted from the June 4 travel ban.
Officials said the freeze took effect immediately and is being implemented across all affected offices.
The administration has also directed a review of all green cards issued to individuals from the 19 countries covered under the travel ban, including Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran, Libya, and Yemen.
The review will examine past issuances under the Biden administration to ensure full compliance with current national security standards. U.S. officials have not said how many cases will be reexamined or how long the process will take, but the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that new guidance for handling “discretionary benefits” is being prepared.
Separately, asylum officers have been instructed to pause all pending affirmative asylum decisions nationwide until new vetting procedures are finalized. Defensive asylum cases in immigration court are not affected by the pause, but it effectively halts new asylum approvals by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, President Trump announced his intention to “permanently pause migration from third-world countries,” emphasizing the need for a merit-based immigration system that prioritizes skills and self-sufficiency over extended family sponsorships and random visa lotteries.
The White House has not yet released a timetable for implementation, but senior officials said the measure would build on Trump’s earlier June 4 order tightening entry standards for 19 countries deemed “high-risk.”
