Harvard foreign students face uncertainty as Trump plan to block enrolment

Monday, 26 May 2025 05:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s plan to strip Harvard University of its ability to enrol foreign students.

The university said the administration’s decision last week to bar international students was a “blatant violation” of the law and free speech rights.

The Trump administration says Harvard has not done enough to fight antisemitism and change its hiring and admissions practices – allegations that the university has strongly denied.

US District Judge Allison Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order in a short ruling issued last Friday.

The order pauses a move that the Department of Homeland Security made last week to revoke Harvard’s access to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) – a Government database that manages foreign students.

The next hearing will occur on 29 May in Boston.

“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,” Harvard argued in the lawsuit.

“We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in a letter. “The revocation continues a series of Government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our 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,” he wrote.

In response, White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said: “If only Harvard cared this much about ending the scourge of anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators on their campus, they wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with.”

After the restraining order was issued, Jackson accused the judge in the case of having a “liberal agenda.”

“These unelected judges have no right to stop the Trump administration from exercising their rightful control over immigration policy and national security policy,” she said.

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