US judge blocks Trump's attempts to bar international students from Harvard
A federal judge on Monday blocked the US government’s attempt to bar foreign nationals from studying at Harvard University, citing concerns about free speech.
Massachusetts judge Allison Burroughs issued an injunction preventing President Donald Trump's administration from barring Harvard from enrolling international students amid an ongoing legal feud between the two sides.
In her ruling, she said the case was about "core constitutional rights that must be safeguarded: freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of speech".
“Here, the government’s misplaced efforts to control a reputable academic institution and squelch diverse viewpoints seemingly because they are, in some instances, opposed to this Administration’s own views, threaten these rights,” Burroughs wrote Monday.
“To make matters worse, the government attempts to accomplish this, at least in part, on the backs of international students, with little thought to the consequences to them or, ultimately, to our own citizens,” she added.
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There are almost 7,000 international students at Harvard University, who make up more than a quarter of its student body.
The preliminary injunction extends a temporary order the judge issued on 5 June that prevented the administration from enforcing a proclamation Trump signed on 4 June, which cited national security concerns to justify why the Ivy League institution could no longer enrol international students.
Trump signed the proclamation after his administration had already frozen billions of dollars in funding for the university, threatened Harvard's tax-exempt status, and launched several investigations into the school.
The proclamation prohibited foreign nationals from entering the US to study at Harvard or participate in exchange visitor programmes for a preliminary period of six months, and directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to consider whether to revoke visas of international students already enrolled at Harvard.
The ruling followed Trump's announcement on Truth Social on Friday that a deal with the university was imminent "over the next week or so", but it was unclear what any deal might entail.
Escalation
Attempting to revoke Harvard's ability to enrol international students is one of a string of measures aimed at curtailing the university’s academic freedom and punish it for not capitulating to the Trump administration's demands.
The battle really took off at the end of March when the Trump administration announced it was reviewing $9bn in federal funds and grants to Harvard. It said it would review more than $255.6m in current contracts and $8.7bn in grants spread over multiple years.
The administration accused the university of failing to adequately protect Jewish students on campus from antisemitic discrimination and harassment, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
On 3 April, the Trump administration sent an initial list of demands to “right these wrongs”, as part of its crackdown on what it calls antisemitism on campuses across the US, referring to the widespread campus protests against Israel's war on Gaza.
Then, on 11 April, the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism sent Harvard an expanded list of demands - such as reporting foreign students for code violations, reforming its governance and leadership, discontinuing its diversity, equity, and inclusion programmes, and changing its hiring and admission policies, especially for international students..
In response to the expanded list of demands, the institution took a stand against the Trump administration, saying in a letter issued by Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and King & Spalding LLP that "the university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights”.
The Trump administration then escalated its attack on Harvard with a $2.3bn federal funding freeze, which represents 35.9 percent of Harvard's $6.4bn operating expenses.
Then, the US Department of Health and Human Services said that it was terminating $60m in federal grants to the university, saying it failed to address antisemitic harassment and ethnic discrimination on campus.
While Monday's court decision represents a victory for Harvard, it is still embroiled in a legal war with the government that is not over yet.
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