Judge halts another Trump administration effort to block foreign students from attending Harvard

WASHINGTON: A federal judge on Monday blocked another effort by the Trump administration 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. President Donald 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 $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. Harvard sued the department of homeland security in May 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 roughly 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 Friday. The latest injunction came 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. On Friday, he said in a post on Truth Social 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's post said. Foreign students, who account for a quarter of Harvard's enrollment, were brought into the battle in April when Homeland Security Secretary 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 President Alan Garber previously said 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.