A federal judge said yesterday she would extend an order blocking President Donald Trump’s administration from immediately revoking Harvard University’s ability to enrol international students, a victory for the Ivy League school that is entangled in multiple battles with the administration.
US District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston announced her intention to issue a preliminary injunction, six days after she first granted Harvard a temporary order blocking the Trump administration’s move.
As the court hearing unfolded yesterday morning, thousands of Harvard students were receiving their degrees at the school’s commencement ceremony on campus about 8 km away.
University President Alan Garber, who received a standing ovation, welcomed graduating students “from down the street, across the country and around the world,” drawing applause for the last words.
“Around the world – just as it should be,” he added.
The Trump administration has launched a multifront attack on the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, freezing billions of dollars in grants and other funding, proposing to end its tax-exempt status and opening an investigation into whether it discriminated against white, Asian, male or straight employees or job applicants.
Revoking Harvard’s ability to enrol international students would be damaging, the school says. More than a quarter of the student body is international; nearly 60 per cent of the graduate students at the prestigious Harvard Kennedy School hail from other countries.
The attack on Harvard is part of the administration’s broader effort to pressure higher education institutions to align with its policy agenda.
The offensive against US colleges had largely been confined to Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, which it has accused of left-wing bias and antisemitism.
Lynn Pasquerella, president of the advocacy group American Association of Colleges and Universities, said the Trump administration’s targeting of international students would have negative consequences for schools and the US.
“Chinese students, in particular, now that they’re being faced with hyper-scrutiny, are looking elsewhere,” she said. “That is a huge loss for us. It’s a brain drain.”
The court hearing before Burroughs took place shortly after the administration softened its stance in an apparent effort to refute Harvard’s legal arguments in advance.
Late Wednesday night, the US Department of Homeland Security sent a notice to Harvard saying it would now give the university 30 days to submit evidence contesting the administration’s plan to revoke Harvard’s right to enrol non-US students.
The notice signaled a change in course for DHS, which had said last week that the revocation was effective immediately. In its lawsuit challenging the move, Harvard argued that DHS had violated federal administrative procedure.
During the court hearing, US Department of Justice attorney Tiberius Davis argued there was now no need for a court order blocking the administration’s actions, since Harvard could challenge them via an administrative process.
But Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, said she believed a broad preliminary injunction protecting Harvard and students was necessary while that process played out.
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