Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump's Ban On Foreign Students Enrolling At Harvard

Black America Web

26-05-2025

Source: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / Getty
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration's move to bar Harvard University from enrolling foreign students, which appeared to be President Donald Trump's latest retaliatory move against any institution that refuses to bow down to his unproven claims of rampant on-campus antisemitism as well as his anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion directives. (Or maybe Trump just hates education and non-white foreigners. Probably all of the above, actually.)
According to The Guardian , US District Judge Allison Burroughs issued the temporary restraining order Friday morning, just hours after Harvard filed a lawsuit against the White House over its abrupt ban on foreign students, which the administration's Department of Homeland Security issued (for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with homeland security) on Thursday.
Harvard announced the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Boston, early Friday morning. The lawsuit argues that the government's ban on non-U.S. students violates the First Amendment and will have an 'immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.'
'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,' the suit reads.
'Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,' it also declared.
The White House, of course, called the lawsuit 'frivolous,' which is rich coming from an administration that is trying to justify an arbitrary action that appears to serve no practical purpose outside of presidential pettiness against an Ivy League institution that won't bow to an overreaching federal government.
Also, the administration appears to be following its Columbia University playbook, threatening the school and students who have engaged in protests and other causes that go against the ideology of the MAGA-fied government. (Some people might call that fascism. Trump and his GOP just call it another day of the week.)
From The Guardian :
The Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported that the Department of Homeland Security gave Harvard 72 hours to turn over all documents on all international students' disciplinary records and paper, audio or video records on protest activity over the past five years in order to have the 'opportunity' to have its eligibility to enroll foreign students reinstated.
'The government's action is unlawful,' said a statement from Harvard on the action. 'This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard's academic and research mission.'
Harvard President Alan Garber wrote an open letter to students, 'The revocation (of foreign enrollments) continues a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government's illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body.'
Harvard's lawsuit lists Garber and 'fellows of Harvard' as plaintiffs. The lengthy list of defendants includes the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the government's Student and Exchange Visitor Program, Homeland Securety Secretary Kristi Noem (the official who doesn't appear to know what habeas corpus is), US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretay of State Marco Rubio, and acting ICE director Todd Lyons.
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Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump's Ban On Foreign Students Enrolling At Harvard was originally published on cassiuslife.com
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