A federal judge has blocked President Trump’s latest effort to prevent international students from studying at Harvard University.
The president’s latest move in his war against the Ivy League school saw him sign a proclamation that claimed that letting foreign nationals study at Harvard is “detrimental to the interests of the United States,” because “Harvard’s conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers.”
Hours after Harvard’s lawyers filed a complaint against the proclamation Thursday, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs issued a temporary order which blocked anyone from “implementing, instituting, maintaining, enforcing, or giving force or effect to the Presidential Proclamation,” after agreeing with Harvard that it would cause “immediate and irreparable injury” to the university before courts could properly review the case.
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Last month, Burroughs issued a similar order that blocked the Trump administration’s previous attempt to ban foreign students from enrolling at Harvard, which was also extended after the university claimed the president’s latest proclamation was an attempt to illegally bypass the judge’s earlier ruling.
“The Proclamation denies thousands of Harvard’s students the right to come to this country to pursue their education and follow their dreams, and it denies Harvard the right to teach them. Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the university claimed in its legal filing.
Harvard President Alan Garber claimed the move was retaliation from Trump after the university refused to allow the government to control the curriculum, governance, and ideology of its students and faculty members. Garber previously claimed the institution will never stray from its “core, legally-protected principles,” even if ordered to by the federal government.
“International students and scholars make outstanding contributions inside and outside of our classrooms and laboratories, fulfilling our mission of excellence in countless ways,” he added in a letter to the student body on Thursday night. “We will celebrate them, support them, and defend their interests as we continue to assert our Constitutional rights.”
In a statement on Thursday, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called Harvard “a hotbed of anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators.”
“Harvard’s behavior has jeopardized the integrity of the entire U.S. student and exchange visitor visa system and risks compromising national security,” she added, Reuters reports. “Now it must face the consequences of its actions.”
Harvard has denied the claims.
