Main: President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he arrives for a meeting with the House Republican Conference at the Capitol, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.). Inset: CAMBRIDGE, MA – April 15: A general view of Dunster House on April 15, 2025, at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA (Photo by Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire) (Icon Sportswire via AP Images).
A federal judge in Massachusetts has granted a request from Harvard University to temporarily block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from revoking its ability to enroll international students in an overtly retaliatory move taken after the school refused to comply with a series of demands from the Trump administration.
Less than 12 hours after the university filed its complaint in federal court, U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs, an appointee of Barack Obama, issued a temporary restraining order enjoining the administration from “implementing, instituting, maintaining, or giving effect to” a measure seeking to rescind Harvard’s “Student and Exchange Visitor Program” (SEVP).
In the brief two-page order, Burroughs reasoned that if she did not bar the administration’s action, Harvard would suffer “immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties.”
In the lawsuit, Harvard asserts that for nearly a century, the school has invested millions of dollars to recruit and integrate the most talented students from across the globe, an effort the President Donald Trump is seeking to undue in the blink of an eye.
“This revocation is a blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act,” the complaint states. “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.”
Attorneys representing the university did not mince words in accusing the government of engaging in a “campaign of retribution” after the administration last month demanded that Harvard produce all records of disciplinary actions involving non-citizen students and any footage of student protests, among other things, in a supposed effort to combat antisemitism and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. The school provided responses to the requests that the government deemed “insufficient,” per the lawsuit.
While the administration has targeted multiple prestigious universities in similar fashion, Harvard has likely been hit the hardest, with $60 million in grants and about $3 billion in contracts being frozen. The Justice Department has also opened numerous investigations into the school while repeatedly threatening to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status.
“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,” the university’s latest lawsuit says. “The government’s actions are unlawful for other equally clear and pernicious reasons. They disregard the government’s own regulations — under which Harvard should remain certified to host F-1 and J-1 visa holders. They depart from decades of settled practice and come without rational explanation. And they were carried out abruptly without any of the robust procedures the government has established to prevent just this type of upheaval to thousands of students’ lives.”
The Trump administration, which openly accused Harvard of promoting anti-Israel sentiments and violence, particularly antisemitic violence, quickly responded to Burroughs’ issuance of the TRO.
“The ruling delays justice and seeks to kneecap the President’s constitutionally vested powers under Article II,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement emailed to multiple news organizations. “It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments; that fact hasn’t changed. The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system, and we expect a higher court to vindicate us in this. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.”
