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Federal judge blocks Trump admin from capping international students at Harvard

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he wants to cut the number of foreign students enrolled at Harvard from 31% to 15%.

Gavel, Court, Judge
Gavel. Credit: Katrin Bolovtsova/Pexels.

Allison Burroughs, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, issued a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from making permanent changes to Harvard University’s student visa program, according to the New York Post.

In a Boston federal courtroom on Thursday, Burroughs said that she wanted to maintain the status quo with her injunction, telling Harvard’s lead attorney that it doesn’t “need to be draconian, but I want to make sure it’s worded in such a way that nothing changes,” per Post.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would like to cut the number of foreign students enrolled at Harvard from 31% to 15%.

“They’re taking people from areas of the world that are very radicalized, and we don’t want them making trouble in our country,” he told reporters at the White House.

On Monday, Trump announced that he is considering withholding an additional $3.3 billion in federal funding from the university over its failure to address Jew-hatred on campus.

Vita Fellig is a writer in New York City.
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