Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump admin from banning Harvard international students
A Massachusetts judge has ordered the federal government not to make any permanent changes to Harvard University’s student visa program.
Judge Allison Burroughs issued a preliminary injunction Thursday morning as Harvard University lawyers squared off with the Trump administration in a Boston federal courtroom over the government’s attempt to prevent the prestigious school from admitting international students.
“I want to maintain the status quo,” in allowing the school to resume accepting foreign students and visa holders, Burroughs said, telling the sides to hash out an agreement to temporarily halt the freeze on Harvard’s student visa program.
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“It doesn’t need to be draconian, but I want to make sure it’s worded in such a way that nothing changes,” she said, with Harvard’s lead attorney Ian Gershengorn telling the judge he doesn’t want any “shenanigans” to take place once the order is set.
Also on Thursday, Harvard president Alan Garber jabbed at President Trump’s crackdown on international student enrollment during his remarks at the Ivy League school’s graduation ceremony.
“Members of the Class of 2025, from down the street, across the country and around the world … just as it should be,” he said.
Hours before the pitched battle got underway, the administration filed a legal notice giving Harvard 30 days to make its case to remain eligible to enroll foreign visa holders through the Student and Exchange Visitor Program.
Trump said Wednesday that Cambridge University should reduce by half its number of international students to make Harvard “great again” – suggesting a cap of 15% instead of the 27.2% currently on the rolls.
“We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools, [but] they can’t get in because we have foreign students there,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
Trump has also threatened to strip the university of some $3.3 billion in federal grants if it fails to comply with a list of demands aimed at curbing campus antisemitism, floating the idea of shifting the funds to trade schools instead.
The hearing unfolded just six miles away from the school’s 2025 commencement ceremony, where university president Garber, who has vowed to “stand firm” in the fight with the administration, took the stage to thunderous applause as he welcomed the nearly 32,000 people packing Harvard Yard.
The graduation ceremony was peppered with anti-Israel and anti-Trump statements and protests, including a small group of around 50 demonstrators along Massachusetts Avenue who brandished signs reading “support students punished for opposing genocide” and “stop arming Israel,” according to the Harvard Crimson.
During the commencement, a brief confrontation broke out between campus police and two people who unfurled a banner reading “there are no universities left in Gaza” at the top of the Widener Library steps, described by the Crimson as “heated.”
The banner was confiscated, and one of the disruptors reportedly yelled “give me my flag back” at the officer. It was not immediately clear how they were affiliated with Harvard.
Another banner was draped from a second-floor window of Sever Hall, reading “Harvard divest from genocide in Gaza” in black and red lettering.
A small group of students in caps and gowns near the building turned around to snap photos of the banner, which was promptly removed by campus police. Three school administrators entered the building to attempt to find the culprits but were unsuccessful, the outlet noted.
Many faculty members displayed stickers on their gowns which read, “without our international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” which has become a rallying cry among the university community in protest of the administration’s push to stop admissions of foreign students.
Graduates, meanwhile, pinned white flowers to their regalia to show their support of the school’s some 9,000 international students.
