[NEW YORK] A judge suspended on Friday (May 23) the Trump administration’s move to block Harvard from enrolling and hosting foreign students after the prestigious university sued, calling the action unconstitutional.
On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign nationals, throwing the future of thousands of students and the lucrative income stream they provide into doubt.
But Harvard sued and US district judge Allison Burroughs ordered that “The Trump administration is hereby enjoined from implementing… the revocation of Plaintiff’s SEVP (Student and Exchange Visitor Program) certification.”
There will be an injunction hearing on May 29, a court filing showed.
US President Donald Trump is furious at Harvard – which has produced 162 Nobel prize winners – for rejecting Washington’s oversight on admissions and hiring amid his claims the school is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology.
His administration has threatened to put US$9 billion of government funding to Harvard under review, then went on to freeze a first tranche of US$2.2 billion of grants and US$60 million of official contracts. It has also targeted a Harvard Medical School researcher for deportation.
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“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” said the lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court.
The lawsuit called for a judge to “stop the government’s arbitrary, capricious, unlawful, and unconstitutional action”.
The loss of foreign nationals – more than a quarter of its student body – could prove costly to Harvard, which charges tens of thousands of US dollars a year in tuition.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller claimed that, in granting a temporary pause, “a communist judge has created a constitutional right for foreign nationals… to be admitted to American universities funded by American tax US dollars”.
‘Unlawful and unwarranted’
Harvard President Alan Garber said in a statement on Friday ahead of Burroughs’s order that “we condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action.
“It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams,” he said.
Noem had said on Thursday that “this administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, anti-Semitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus”.
Chinese students make up more than a fifth of Harvard’s international enrollment, according to university figures, and Beijing said the decision will “only harm the image and international standing of the United States”.
“The Chinese side has consistently opposed the politicisation of educational cooperation,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.
Harvard has already sued the US government over a separate raft of punitive measures.
Karl Molden, a student at Harvard from Austria, said he had applied to transfer to Oxford in Britain because he feared such measures.
“It’s scary and it’s saddening,” the 21-year-old government and classics student told AFP on Thursday, calling his admission to Harvard the “greatest privilege” of his life.
Leaders of the Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors called Trump’s action “the latest in a string of nakedly authoritarian and retaliatory moves against America’s oldest institution of higher education”. AFP
