Harvard secures longer reprieve from Trump's ban on foreign students

US Judge Allison Burroughs granted Harvard a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration's May 22 order to revoke its ability to enrol international students

By David Voreacos and Anika Arora Seth

 

A federal judge issued a new order that allows Harvard University to continue enrolling foreign students while the school fights the Trump administration’s efforts to prevent it from doing so. 

US District Judge Allison Burroughs granted Harvard a preliminary injunction Friday that prevents the Trump administration from implementing a May 22 order revoking the university’s ability to host international students. The injunction extends an earlier temporary bar that was set to expire.

 

Harvard is the main target of President Donald Trump’s efforts to force universities to crack down on antisemitism, remove perceived political bias and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Harvard has separately sued over a $2.6 billion funding freeze, and Burroughs has temporarily blocked that from moving forward. Trump has also threatened to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status. 

 

Burroughs said at a May 29 hearing that she would grant a preliminary injunction to help Harvard’s 6,800 international students, who comprise 27 per cent of the school’s population. In her injunction, she sided with Harvard in adopting an order that broadly prevents the administration from taking other steps to alter the school’s status.

 

Burroughs directed the government to instruct all embassies, consulates and border agents to “restore every visa holder and applicant to the position that individual would have been” before the May 22 order and to provide a status update to the court within 72 hours.

 

Harvard claims Trump has violated its free-speech and procedural rights as it seeks to dictate its decisions on faculty hiring, academic programs and student admissions. The school sued after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said May 22 that she was immediately revoking Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, despite the school participating in a US program to do so for more than 70 years. 

 

Trump also issued a separate proclamation on June 4 barring students and scholars on Harvard-sponsored visas from entering the US. Burroughs issued a separate temporary halt to that order but did not mention it in her ruling on Friday afternoon.

 

The Trump administration argues that the president has sweeping power to control immigration and national security, and judges can’t second guess his exercise of that power.