Trump effort to keep Harvard from hosting foreign students blocked by federal judge

A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to stop Harvard University from hosting foreign nationals on student visas. 

US District Judge Allison Burroughs’s preliminary injunction extends a temporary block she issued last month, which prevented the Trump administration from revoking the Ivy League school’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification. 

The certification allows Harvard to host roughly 7,000 international students – about 27% of the school’s total enrollment. 

The injunction will remain in effect until the underlying case is decided, the Obama-appointed judge ruled. 

The ruling marks another legal victory for the Cambridge, Massachusetts school as it challenges several sanctions ordered against it by President Trump. 

Harvard filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in May after the Department of Homeland Security withdrew the school’s SEVP certification, which would’ve forced foreign nationals attending Harvard to transfer out of the prestigious institution.  

The university claims the revocation is retaliation for its rejection of White House demands to overhaul campus protest, admission and hiring policies over antisemitism concerns. 

Harvard had also refused Trump’s request for it to turn over foreign students’ records, including any video or audio of their protest activity in the past five years.

After Burroughs initially blocked the SEVP revocation, Trump issued a bombshell proclamation on June 4 banning international students from entering the US to study at Harvard for at least six months, citing concerns over national security, crime rates and discrimination. 

Burroughs, a Boston-based judge, temporarily blocked that effort as well.

Harvard’s lawsuit over student visa ban argued that it put the university at a disadvantage as it competed for the world’s top students.

The lawsuit further claimed that the Ivy League school’s reputation as a global research hub would be harmed by the certification revocation. 

“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the suit claimed.

Trump has also threatened to strip the university of some $3.3 billion in federal grants and shift the funds to trade schools instead if school officials do not comply with measures aimed at curbing antisemitism on campus.

The president teased Friday that his administration is close to striking a deal on that front with Harvard. 

“Many people have been asking what is going on with Harvard University and their largescale improprieties that we have been addressing, looking for a solution,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We have been working closely with Harvard, and it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so.”

“They have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right,” he continued. “If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.”

“Thank you for your attention to this matter!”