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A federal judge has issued a restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s move to kick Harvard University out of the foreign student program, saying the school faces an irreparable injury if the decision is allowed to go forward.
In a ruling Friday, Judge Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee to the court in Massachusetts, set an initial hearing for next week.
But she took the extraordinary step of issuing a temporary restraining order just hours after Harvard filed its lawsuit and before the government had a chance to respond, saying otherwise the school would “sustain immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties.”
The case has quickly drawn the attention of the legal and political worlds, after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday booted the storied university from the Student and Exchange Visitor program.
Ms. Noem said she was acting because Harvard was collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party and had allowed antisemitism to run rampant.
The school, in its lawsuit, said President Trump has had the university in his crosshairs for some time and wants to punish it for not bowing down to his demands for faculty and curriculum adjustments.
“With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body,” the school said in its lawsuit.
Harvard said it had worked “diligently” to get Ms. Noem the documents she demanded. Ms. Noem saw it differently, saying the school “brazenly” rebuffed the inquiries.
Harvard said that was a smoke screen for what’s really going on.
“DHS’s revocation letter leaves no doubt that the revocation is part of DHS’s campaign to coerce Harvard into surrendering its First Amendment rights,” the school said. “Or put another way: because the administration perceives that members of Harvard’s community have the wrong viewpoints, Harvard will be punished until it alters its viewpoints to satisfy the administration’s demands.”
Harvard had about 6,800 international students in the school year that’s just ending, or about 27% of the total enrollment. That’s up dramatically from two decades ago, when they were less than 4,000 students, and less than 20% of the student body.
Harvard has also sued to stop the Trump administration from blocking billions of dollars in federal grant money.
Harvard is requesting that a judge restore the school’s status in the foreign student program and block Homeland Security from booting the university in the future.
One of Harvard’s lawyers on the case is Robert K. Hur, a former U.S. attorney in Mr. Trump’s first term and the man who served as the special counsel in the investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified documents from before he was president.
Ms. Noem’s order shuts down the school’s ability to host foreign and exchange students — those holding F or J visas — starting in the 2025-2026 school year.
Students affected would have to transfer to another school or try to find another visa status to remain in the U.S.
The school said it is already working on its incoming summer students and its fall class. It said it has already admitted thousands of students and cannot comply with the demand for those school terms.
“Effective immediately, countless academic programs, research laboratories, clinics, and courses supported by Harvard’s international students have been thrown into disarray,” the school said. “The government’s actions come just days before graduation. Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”
English (US) ·