Judge to extend block on Trump move to revoke Harvard's ability to enrol international students
A federal judge said on Wednesday that she would issue an order that would continue to block the
Trump
administration from immediately revoking
Harvard
University's
ability to enrol international students.
US district Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston announced her intention to issue a broad preliminary injunction shortly after the administration revealed its plans to pursue a new, lengthier administrative process to block the students' enrolment.
The US department of homeland security changed course ahead of a hearing before the Judge Burroughs over whether to extend a temporary order blocking president Donald Trump's administration from revoking the Ivy League school's right to host international students.
The department in a notice sent to Harvard near midnight on Wednesday said it would give the school 30 days to contest its plans to revoke its certification under a federal programme allowing it to enrol non-US students.
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The justice department filed a copy of the notice in court two hours before Thursday's hearing. Harvard's lawyers and the judge said at the hearing that they were still processing it and assessing its impact on the school's lawsuit.
When the Judge Burroughs asked if the notice acknowledged that procedural steps were not taken, justice department attorney Tiberius Davis replied that this wasn't necessarily the case. Instead, he said, the notice recognised that adopting the procedures Harvard advocated for would be better and simpler.
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Trump administration halts Harvard's ability to enrol international students
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Mr Davis said the notice made Harvard's arguments at this time moot. However, Judge Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic former president Barack Obama, expressed scepticism about that, saying 'Aren't we still going to end up back here at the same place?'
Ian Gershengorn, a lawyer for Harvard, told the judge that an injunction protecting Harvard during the administrative process was necessary, saying the school was worried about the administration's efforts to retaliate against it.
'The first amendment harms we are suffering are real and continuing,' he said.
Judge Burroughs said a preliminary injunction was needed to stop any immediate changes and protect international students arriving to attend Harvard.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university says department's action is part of an 'unprecedented and retaliatory attack on academic freedom at Harvard,' which is pursuing a separate lawsuit challenging the administration's decision to terminate nearly $3 billion (€2.6 billion) in federal research funding.
Harvard argues the Trump administration is retaliating against it for refusing to accede to its demands to control the school's governance, curriculum and the ideology of its faculty and students.
Harvard filed the lawsuit a day after homeland security secretary Kristi Noem on May 22nd announced she was revoking its certification with the Student and Exchange Visitor Program.
Harvard said the decision was 'devastating' for the school and its student body. The university, the nation's oldest and wealthiest, enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, about 27 per cent of its total enrolment.
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Harvard had argued that the revocation not only violated its free speech and due process rights under the US constitution but also failed to comply with department regulations. The regulations require it to receive 30 days to challenge the agency's allegations and an opportunity to pursue an administrative appeal.
In announcing the initial decision to revoke Harvard's certification, Ms Noem, without providing evidence, accused the university of 'fostering violence, anti-Semitism, and co-ordinating with the Chinese Communist Party'.
In a letter that day, she accused the school of refusing to comply with wide-ranging requests for information on its student visa holders, including about any activity they engaged in that was illegal or violent or that would subject them to discipline.
The department's move would prevent Harvard from enrolling new international students and require existing ones to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status. Mr Trump on Wednesday said that Harvard should have a 15 per cent cap on the number of non-US students it admits. – Reuters
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