“With a stroke of a pen, the government sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission,” Harvard wrote in its lawsuit. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”
Hours after the Trump administration announced that it would suspend international student enrollment at Harvard, the university filed a lawsuit challenging the order’s legality.
According to The New York Times, a federal judge on Friday granted the university’s request for a temporary restraining order. In her decision, U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs agreed with Harvard’s allegation that, if enforced, the Trump administration’s dictate would cause “immediate and irreparable injury” to the school and its thousands of international students.
“With a stroke of a pen, the government sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission,” Harvard wrote in its lawsuit. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”
The Associated Press notes that the White House’s sudden move to suspend the enrollment of foreign students at Harvard could have sweeping repercussions. Aside from seeking to block the issuance of new student visas, the Trump administration also stated that all currently-enrolled students at Harvard must either comply with a set of arbitrary requirements, transfer to another institution, or risk losing their ability to study and work in the United States.
Attorneys for the Ivy League said that, even if the school’s lawsuit is successful, “future applicants may shy away from applying out of fear of further reprisals from the government.”
If, in contrast, the government’s action is allowed to stand, the university will be unable to admit any new international students for at least two more academic years.
The Trump administration’s threats against Harvard and its student body escalated in April, when former Alaska governor and current Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem abruptly demanded that the university provide disciplinary records that could implicate international students and faculty in “antisemitic” pro-Palestine protest and alleged acts of violence.
The lawsuit was filed less than 24 hours after the Trump administration made unsubstantiated claims that the school tolerated the presence of “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators.” It also accused Harvard of having ties with the Chinese Communist Party, noting that the school has hosted Chinese government officials as recently as 2024.
Although Harvard claims to have provided “thousands of data points” to satisfy Noem’s initial inquiry, the Department of Homeland Security appears to have ignored all of them.
“[The order] makes generalized statements about campus environment and ‘anti-Americanism,’ again without articulating any rational link between those statements and the decision to retaliate against international students,” the lawsuit states.
A spokesperson for the White House has since doubled down on the administration’s arbitrary and punitive tactics, suggesting that Harvard could have averted crisis if only it had complied with Noem’s request.
“If only Harvard cared this much about ending the scourge of anti-American, antisemitic, pro-terrorist agitators on their campus they wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with,” White House spokesperson Abigal Jackson said in a statement. “Harvard should spend their time and resources on creating a safe campus environment instead of filing frivolous lawsuits.”
Jackson’s statement, along with the Trump administration’s overall response, seems to have out ignored Harvard’s extensive efforts to combat both on-campus antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Aside from commissioning independent task forces to investigate allegations of prejudice, the university also adopted stricter definitions of antisemitism, reformed its on-campus protest policies, and revised its fact-finding processes for discipline cases across its colleges.
On Thursday, Harvard’s neighbor, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sent out a mass email to its own students.
“I write to you in profound disbelief,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth wrote in an email. “The action the federal government took today to bar Harvard from having international students is devastating for American excellence, openness, and ingenuity.”
Sources
Federal judge blocks Trump administration from barring foreign student enrollment at Harvard
Judge blocks Trump administration’s attempt to ban foreign students at Harvard
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