A federal court on Thursday temporarily blocked former President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to prevent international students from enrolling at Harvard University, escalating tensions between the former president and one of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions.
The move follows a proclamation issued by the White House late Wednesday that sought to bar most new international students at Harvard from entering the U.S., while also threatening to revoke the visas of existing foreign students.
“Harvard’s conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers,” the proclamation stated.
In response, Harvard swiftly amended a previously filed federal court complaint, describing the measure as part of a broader campaign by the government.
“This is not the Administration’s first attempt to sever Harvard from its international students,” the filing said.
“It is part of a concerted and escalating campaign of retaliation by the government in clear retribution for Harvard’s exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students.”
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled that the government cannot enforce the proclamation, granting a temporary restraining order. She noted that Harvard had demonstrated a risk of “immediate and irreparable injury” if the proclamation were allowed to take effect before a full hearing.
Judge Burroughs had previously blocked a similar attempt by the Trump administration to restrict international student enrollment at the university.
Retaliation alleged
The administration has already slashed approximately $3.2 billion in federal grants and contracts to Harvard and pledged to exclude the university from future federal funding opportunities.
Harvard has positioned itself as a central figure in Trump’s broader campaign against elite academic institutions, many of which have resisted federal attempts to exert control over university policies, curriculum, hiring practices, and what the administration refers to as “viewpoint diversity.”
International students currently account for about 27 percent of Harvard’s total enrollment for the 2024–2025 academic year, representing a significant portion of its academic community and revenue.
While Harvard acknowledged in its filing that the president does hold broad authority over immigration in the public interest, it argued that the current action lacked that justification.
“The President’s actions thus are not undertaken to protect the ‘interests of the United States,’ but instead to pursue a government vendetta against Harvard,” the filing stated.
Since returning to office, Trump has intensified his attacks on elite universities, accusing them of fostering liberal bias, anti-Semitism, and “woke” ideology. On Wednesday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos threatened to revoke Columbia University’s accreditation, citing its alleged failure to address harassment of Jewish students—putting the school’s federal funding in jeopardy.
Unlike Harvard, several top institutions, including Columbia, have already conceded to wide-ranging demands from the administration.
AFP
