Judge temporarily blocks Trump plan to stop Harvard enrolling foreign students

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 ruling came after Harvard filed a lawsuit – the latest escalation of a dispute between the White House and one of America’s most prestigious institutions.

The university said the administration’s decision on Thursday 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 on Friday.

The order pauses a move that the Department of Homeland Security made on Thursday to revoke Harvard’s access to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program – a government database that manages foreign students.

There are around 6,800 international students at Harvard, who make up more than 27% of its enrolments this year.

“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.

“Harvard should spend their time and resources on creating a safe campus environment instead of filing frivolous lawsuits,” Jackson said in a statement.

Harvard relies heavily on the money that comes from international students who make up nearly a third of its student body. Many of them pay full tuition while domestic students can access assistance like scholarships and loans.

A year’s tuition at Harvard Law School, for example, costs $80,760 (£60,758). With housing, food, insurance and other expenses included, students can expect to pay around $120,000 (£90,192) for the year.

The Trump administration has taken aim at Harvard and other elite institutions, not only arguing that they should do more to clamp down on pro-Palestinian activists but also claiming they discriminate against conservative viewpoints.

The Trump administration has launched investigations into dozens of universities across the countries and wrung concessions from other major US institutions like Columbia University in New York.

In April, the White House froze $2.2bn (£1.7bn) in federal funding to Harvard, and Trump has threated to remove the university’s tax-exempt status, a standard designation for US educational institutions.

The funding freeze prompted an earlier Harvard lawsuit, also asking the courts to stop the administration’s actions.

Harvard, one of eight elite Ivy League universities, is located just outside Boston in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

While Harvard leaders have made concessions – including dismissing the leaders of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies, who had come under fire for failing to represent Israeli perspectives – the latest lawsuit indicates the university is willing to fight the Trump administration in court.

The university has enlisted several high-profile Republican lawyers in its battle, including an advisor to the Trump Organization and Robert Hur, a former special counsel who investigated Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents.

Foreign students currently attending Harvard have expressed worries that the row between their institution could force them to return home.

Chinese student Kat Xie, who is in her second year in a STEM programme, told the BBC she is “in shock”.

“I had almost forgotten about [the earlier threat of a ban] and then Thursday’s announcement suddenly came,” she said.

With reporting from Bernd Debusmann at the White House