A federal judge in Boston ruled on Monday to extend the pause on the Trump administration’s order to take away Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students.
Judge Allison Burroughs’s ruling, which extends her pause until June 23, builds on a decision made at the end of May after Harvard requested an emergency hearing when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it would no longer allow the school to enroll any more foreign students and that the current international ones would have to transfer.
“This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at the time. “It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments.”
The Hill has reached out to DHS for comment on the new development.
Foreign students at Harvard, making up to 27 percent of the student body, had their lives uprooted by the Trump administration’s move. Many face complicating factors such as political conflicts in their home countries or have few options for academic transfers due to the highly specialized nature of their studies.
In its court filings, Harvard said some individuals with visas connected to the university were getting extra security screenings at airports and others were looking to transfer, while schools in other countries are trying to recruit Harvard’s students.
The Hill has reached out to Harvard for comment.
This court case is just one battle in the broader war between the Trump administration and Harvard.
The White House has aggressively gone after the nation’s oldest and richest university after it refused to change its disciplinary policies and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, among other demands from the administration.
In response, President Trump has launched numerous investigations against Harvard and taken away billions of federal dollars from the school.
Harvard has sued over an initial $3 billion funding pause, and the first court hearing for the matter is set for July.
The government’s actions are due to Harvard’s “refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty and our student body,” school President Alan Garber wrote after Trump’s actions against the school’s foreign students.
