Judge extends pause on Trump's efforts to block Harvard from enrolling international students
A federal judge on Monday temporarily delayed issuing a ruling on whether the Trump administration can block international students bound for Harvard University from entering the country.
The decision, from Massachusetts federal Judge Allison D. Burroughs, means a previous temporary order barring the Trump administration from taking such a step will remain in place.
Burroughs has said she'll issue a ruling by next week.
In a Monday hearing, Harvard lawyer Ian Gershengorn argued the administration had subjected the Ivy League university to 'the most irregular and improper treatment that a university has ever suffered at the hands of the government,' comparing it to the Red Scare, The New York Times reports.
Justice Department lawyer Tiberius Davis argued the school wasn't being singled out, but rather that Trump's June 4 proclamation trying to block internationals bound for Harvard was because the university hadn't provided the government necessary information on foreign students.
'The power is with Harvard to fix this and make it go away,' Davis said, according to the paper.
Burroughs has also temporarily barred the administration from a related step it attempted in May, revoking Harvard's ability to sponsor international students through the Student Exchange and Visitor Program.
The university has been battling the administration in court across multiple lawsuits since April, after the White House attempted to pull billions in federal funding from the school when it declined to agree to a series of wide-ranging demands for campus reforms, including a 'viewpoint diversity' audit.
The Trump administration accuses the school of not doing enough to crack down on campus antisemitism, violating civil rights law.
Earlier this month, Education Secretary Linda McMahon praised the administration for pushing Harvard to make 'progress' on campus antisemitism issues.
"I have seen progress. And you know why I think we're seeing progress? Because we are putting these measures in place, and we're saying we're putting teeth behind what we're looking at," McMahon told NBC News.
'They talk a lot about it, but I think we really started to see a lot of their actions once we were taking action," McMahon added.
The school was making concerted efforts to address antisemitism on campus before Trump took office, including creating an antisemitism task force in 2024, and working to reform student training practices, disciplinary policies, and protest rules prior to Trump's crackdown on the universities beginning.
Harvard also settled a major antisemitism suit from students and adopted a new campus definition of antisemitism in January, right as Trump took office.
In May, the Associated Press reported the State Department intends to begin reviewing the social media accounts of visa applicants who plan to attend, work at, or visit Harvard.
Since 2023, Harvard has been a prominent center of protest regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
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