A federal judge granted Harvard University a temporary restraining order on Friday, preventing the Trump administration from revoking the school’s student visas.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote to Harvard on Thursday, saying that “effective immediately,” its student visas would be withdrawn because the university had created an “unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies.”
The letter noted that Harvard’s current international students would have to enroll at other schools to retain their legal status, but that the administration would reverse the revocation if Harvard complied with its demands for information about foreign students within 72 hours.
Harvard sued the administration on Friday morning, arguing that the cancellation of Harvard’s visa privileges was unlawful.
“This revocation is a blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause and the Administrative Procedure Act,” Harvard wrote in its complaint. “It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students.”
Harvard has more than 7,000 student visa holders, who make up more than a quarter of the student body, according to the complaint.
Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs, told JNS that Harvard’s suit seeks to “kneecap” U.S. President Donald Trump’s constitutional powers.
“It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,” McLaughlin said.
“The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system,” she said. “No lawsuit, this or any other, is going to change that. We have the law, the facts and common sense on our side.”
Allison Burroughs, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, found on Friday that the administration’s actions would cause Harvard “immediate and irreparable injury.”
Burroughs granted the school its request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the administration from revoking Harvard’s student visas, pending a hearing.
The suit is the latest theater of battle between America’s oldest institution of higher education and the Trump administration over the school’s alleged fostering of Jew-hatred and promotion of “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) measures.
In April, Harvard filed suit after the administration froze billions of dollars in grants and funding after alleging that the school violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Trump has also mused on social media about revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status, saying that the university promotes “political, ideological and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘sickness,’” though he has not taken formal action to do so.
Harvard claims in its suit that its funding and access to visas are vital to its core mission.
“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the complaint says.