Judge puts temporary hold on Trump's latest ban on Harvard's foreign
students
[June 06, 2025]
By CHRISSIE THOMPSON and COLLIN BINKLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge late Thursday temporarily blocked a
proclamation by President Donald Trump that banned foreign students from
entering the U.S. to attend Harvard University.
Trump's proclamation, issued Wednesday, was the latest attempt by his
administration to prevent the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college
from enrolling a quarter of its students, who accounts for much of
Harvard’s research and scholarship.
Harvard filed a legal challenge the next day, asking for a judge to
block Trump’s order and calling it illegal retaliation for Harvard’s
rejection of White House demands. Harvard said the president was
attempting an end-run around a previous court order.
A few hours later, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston
issued a temporary restraining order against Trump’s Wednesday
proclamation. Harvard, she said, had demonstrated it would sustain
“immediate and irreparable injury” before she would have an opportunity
to hear from the parties in the lawsuit.
Burroughs also extended the temporary hold she placed on the
administration's previous attempt to end Harvard's enrollment of
international students. Last month, the Department of Homeland Security
revoked Harvard's certification to host foreign students and issue
paperwork to them for their visas, only to have Burroughs block the
action temporarily. Trump’s order this week invoked a different legal
authority.
If Trump’s measure were to survive this court challenge, it would block
thousands of students who are scheduled to come to Harvard's campus in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the summer and fall terms.
“Harvard’s more than 7,000 F-1 and J-1 visa holders — and their
dependents — have become pawns in the government’s escalating campaign
of retaliation,” Harvard wrote Thursday in a court filing.
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While the court case proceeds, Harvard is making contingency plans
so students and visiting scholars can continue their work at the
university, President Alan Garber said in a message to the campus
and alumni.
“Each of us is part of a truly global university community,” Garber
said Thursday. “We know that the benefits of bringing talented
people together from around the world are unique and irreplaceable.”
Harvard has attracted a growing number of the brightest minds from
around the world, with international enrollment growing from 11% of
the student body three decades ago to 26% today.
As those students wait to find out if they'll be able to attend the
university, some are pursuing other options.
Rising international enrollment has made Harvard and other elite
colleges uniquely vulnerable to Trump's crackdown on foreign
students. Republicans have been seeking to force overhauls of the
nation's top colleges, which they see as hotbeds of “woke” and
antisemitic viewpoints.
Garber says the university has made changes to combat antisemitism.
But Harvard, he said, will not stray from its “core,
legally-protected principles,” even after receiving federal
ultimatums.
Trump's administration has also taken steps to withhold federal
funding from Harvard and other elite colleges that have rejected
White House demands related to campus protests, admissions, hiring
and more. Harvard's $53 billion endowment allows it to weather the
loss of funding for a time, although Garber has warned of “difficult
decisions and sacrifices” to come.
But cutting off students and visiting scholars could hamstring the
university's research and global standing.
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