Harvard's Monday court date will be important for international students. Here's why

Yahoo

19-06-2025

A Monday preliminary injunction hearing will hold the weight of what is to come next for Harvard University's foreign student population.
The federal court hearing in Boston is in response to several attempts by the Trump administration to prevent Harvard from enrolling international students or allowing them to enter the country to study. The university began its second lawsuit against the federal government last month.
Since the battle between the two, international students and U.S. students have been considering transferring to other universities.
About 27% of Harvard's undergraduate and graduate students are international, according to 2024 to 2025 data.
There are two temporary restraining orders from May and June that U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs granted.
A preliminary injunction would effectively replace the two — which have expiration dates — to allow for the court case to continue until Burroughs makes a final determination on the legality of the case, according to Jonathan Grode, managing partner at immigration law firm Green and Spiegel.
Read more: Why the fight over foreign students at Harvard has some US students leaving, too
When Harvard asked for a preliminary injunction in May, Burroughs told the university and the Department of Homeland Security to agree on common terms over a preliminary injunction.
In Thursday evening court filings, both Harvard and the Trump administration said they were unable to do so.
Harvard international students have been wrongly detained at Boston Logan Airport and denied visas, according to Maureen Martin, Harvard's Director of Immigration Services, who wrote in a Friday court filing.
The Trump administration, in a lengthy 44-page brief, stated its opposition to a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction in the case.
'That Harvard has now become the subject of an immigration related enforcement action is neither discriminatory nor retaliatory. It reflects considered enforcement discretion directed to address well-founded national-security concerns, which courts cannot question,' the federal government wrote.
If Judge Burroughs sides with the federal government, past restraining orders will be null, putting international students at Harvard in a difficult situation, according to Grode.
The hearing comes after the U.S. State Department ordered embassies around the world to resume processing Harvard University student visas last week.
However, the university has been battling against the Trump administration since April.
It began when the Department of Homeland Security said it was revoking a key certification that allows Harvard University's international students to study there.
The institution was offered an ultimatum by the Trump administration to lose the certification or give up information about its foreign student population.
Quickly after, Judge Burroughs granted a temporary restraining order.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio later stated that the U.S. would begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students and increase vetting of social media accounts of student visa applicants.
Following the revocation attempt, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation that barred Harvard's international students from entering the country. He also directed Rubio to consider stopping the processing of Harvard student visas. Another temporary restraining order was granted in response.
Harvard has a separate lawsuit in reaction to the federal government freezing or cutting nearly $3 billion in federal funding, citing antisemitism at Harvard.
The administration has claimed the university failed to protect Jewish students, particularly in the wake of the war in Gaza.
'In the Trump Administration, discrimination will not be tolerated on campus. Federal funds must support institutions that protect all students,' the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wrote in May as it cut $60 million in grants to Harvard.
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Read the original article on MassLive.