A federal judge on Monday blocked another effort by the administration of US President Donald Trump to keep international students from attending Harvard University, saying officials’ “misplaced efforts to control a reputable academic institution” threatened freedom of speech.
The order from US District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston preserves the ability of foreign students to travel to the US for study at Harvard while the case is decided.
Trump has sought to cut off Harvard’s enrollment of foreign students as part of a pressure campaign seeking changes to governance and policies at the Ivy League school. Administration officials also have cut more than US$2.6 billion in research grants, ended federal contracts and threatened to revoke the tax-exempt status for the school Trump has derided as a hotbed of liberalism.
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Harvard sued the US Department of Homeland Security last month after the agency withdrew the school’s certification to host foreign students and issue paperwork for their visas. The action would have forced Harvard’s about 7,000 foreign students to transfer or risk being in the US illegally.
The university called it illegal retaliation for rejecting the White House’s demands to overhaul Harvard policies around campus protests, admissions, hiring and other issues.
Burroughs temporarily had halted the action hours after Harvard sued and then granted an initial injunction on Friday last week.
The latest injunction came on Monday in response to another move from Trump, who cited a different legal justification when he issued a June 4 proclamation blocking foreign students from entering the US to attend Harvard.
In her order, Burroughs said the case is about freedom of speech and freedom of thought.
“Here, the government’s misplaced efforts to control a reputable academic institution and squelch diverse viewpoints seemingly because they are, in some instances, opposed to this administration’s own views, threaten these rights,” she wrote.
Trump has been warring with Harvard for months after it rejected a series of government demands meant to address conservative complaints that the school has become too liberal and tolerated anti-Jewish harassment.
He said in a post on Truth Social on Friday last week that the administration has been working with Harvard to address their large-scale improprieties and that a deal with Harvard could be announced within the next week.
“They have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right,” Trump wrote.
Foreign students, who account for one-quarter of Harvard’s enrollment, were brought into the battle in April when US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem demanded Harvard turn over a trove of records related to any dangerous or illegal activity by foreign students.
Harvard says it complied, but Noem said the response fell short and on May 22 revoked Harvard’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program.
The sanction immediately put Harvard at a disadvantage as it competed for the world’s top students, the school said in its lawsuit.
“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the suit said.
Harvard University president Alan Garber previously said the university has made changes to combat anti-Semitism, but he said it would not stray from its “core, legally-protected principles,” even after receiving federal ultimatums.
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