- Harvard has sued the Trump administration for the second time in less than a month. The suit comes 24 hours after the White House blocked international students from attending the school. Harvard officials say that could result in students ready to graduate being forced to leave the country.
A federal judge has temporarily halted the Trump administration’s ban on Harvard University enrollment of international students.
Judge Allison Burroughs issued the temporary restraining order hours after the school asked for the courts to step in Friday. The order will block the Department of Homeland Security from revoking the school’s ability to reenroll foreign students.
Burroughs, in her order, said Harvard had shown “it will sustain immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties. … Thus, a TRO is justified to preserve the status quo pending a hearing.”
The prestigious university accused the administration of a “campaign of retribution” and filed the request for a temporary restraining order blocking the move Friday morning. Harvard has hosted F-1 visa students for more than 70 years, it said, under 14 presidential administrations.
“With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission,” the lawsuit reads. “Harvard’s certification is essential for each of Harvard’s thousands of international students to lawfully remain in this country while they complete coursework, obtain degrees, and continue critical research. … Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”
The school noted that the “unprecedented and retaliatory” act threatens to disrupt thousands of students’ lives. More than 7,000 Harvard students are visa holders and the school says they would be “subject to immediate removal from the United States just days before many are to graduate with degrees.” Thousands are also scheduled to come to campus for summer and fall terms, but they would no longer be able to legally enter the country.
The Trump administration has at least eight ongoing investigations into Harvard, and has said it is trying to counter antisemitism and liberal biases at the school (and other Ivy League universities). Harvard said in the suit it has been working to comply with a request from the White House made in April, demanding records of protest activity for the past five years, despite the demand’s “unprecedented nature and scope.”
Harvard also argued that the decertification of its Student and Exchange Visitor Program violated the school’s First Amendment rights, saying “because the Administration perceives that members of Harvard’s community have the wrong viewpoints, Harvard will be punished until it alters its viewpoints to satisfy the Administration’s demands.”
This is the second lawsuit Harvard has filed against the government in the past several weeks. The first focused on a freeze on $2.2 billion in research funding.
