Federal judge blocks Trump administration from barring foreign student enrollment at Harvard

WASHINGTON AP A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from cutting off Harvard s enrollment of foreign students an action the Ivy League school decried as unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House s political demands In its lawsuit filed earlier Friday in federal court in Boston Harvard reported the authorities s action violates the First Amendment and will have an immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than visa holders With the stroke of a pen the cabinet has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard s candidate body international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission Harvard announced in its suit Without its international students Harvard is not Harvard The ruling from U S District Judge Allison Burroughs puts the sanction against Harvard on hold pending the lawsuit The Trump administration move has thrown campus into disarray days before graduation Harvard explained in the suit International students who run labs teach courses assist professors and participate in Harvard sports are now left deciding whether to transfer or hazard losing legal status to stay in the country according to the filing The impact would be heaviest at graduate schools such as the Harvard Kennedy School where about half the apprentice body comes from abroad and Harvard Business School which is about one-third international Along with the impact on current students the move would block thousands of students who were planning to come for summer and fall classes Harvard mentioned it without delay puts the school at a disadvantage as it competes for the world s top students Even if it regains the ability to host students future applicants may shy away from applying out of fear of further reprisals from the cabinet the suit reported If the cabinet s action stands Harvard revealed the university would be unable to offer admission to new international students for at least the next two academic years Schools that have that certification withdrawn by the federal administration are ineligible to reapply until one year afterward Harvard announced Harvard enrolls almost foreign students at its campus in Cambridge Massachusetts Most of are graduate students and they come from more than countries The Department of Homeland Precaution broadcasted the action Thursday accusing Harvard of creating an unsafe campus setting by allowing anti-American pro-terrorist agitators to assault Jewish students on campus It also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party contending the school had hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as in recent weeks as Harvard President Alan Garber earlier this month noted the university has made changes to its governance over the past year and a half including a broad strategy to combat antisemitism He reported Harvard would not budge on its its core legally-protected principles over fears of retaliation Harvard has declared it will respond at a later time to charges first raised by House Republicans about coordination with the Chinese Communist Party Lawrence Summers a former Harvard president and U S treasury secretary wrote on X that the decision would mean losing key people various small fraction of whom are going to go on to be Prime Ministers of countries who ve now been turned into enemies of the United States He commented the administration s action is madness The threat to Harvard s international enrollment stems from an April request from Homeland Measure Secretary Kristi Noem who demanded that Harvard provide information about foreign students that might implicate them in violence or protests that could lead to their deportation Harvard says it provided thousands of facts points in response to Noem s April demand Her letter on Thursday noted Harvard failed to satisfy her request but the school announced she failed to provide any further explanation It makes generalized statements about campus circumstances and anti-Americanism again without articulating any rational link between those statements and the decision to retaliate against international students the suit stated Harvard s lawsuit disclosed the administration violated the administration s own regulations for withdrawing a school s certification The ruling body can and does remove colleges from the Candidate Exchange and Visitor Operation making them ineligible to host foreign students on their campus However it s usually for administrative reasons outlined in law such as failing to maintain accreditation lacking proper facilities for classes or failing to employ qualified professional personnel Noem declared Harvard can regain its ability to host foreign students if it produces a trove of records on foreign students within hours Her updated request demands all records including audio or video footage of foreign students participating in protests or dangerous activity on campus The lawsuit is separate from the university s earlier one challenging more than billion in federal cuts imposed by the Republican administration Associated Press writer Annie Ma contributed to this analysis The Associated Press instruction coverage receives financial patronage from multiple private foundations AP is solely responsible for all content Find AP s standards for working with philanthropies a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP org