On Monday, a federal judge in Boston blocked the Trump administration’s plan to prevent foreign nationals from studying at Harvard University. US district judge Allison Burroughs issued an injunction that halted Trump’s efforts to limit Harvard’s ability to host international students, amid an ongoing dispute between the Republican president and the prestigious Ivy League school.
This preliminary injunction extended a temporary order Judge Burroughs issued on 5 June, which prevented the administration from enforcing a proclamation Trump signed the day before. This proclamation used national security concerns as the justification for no longer trusting Harvard to host international students.
The proclamation had banned foreign nationals from entering the US to study at Harvard or to participate in exchange visitor programs for an initial six-month period. It also directed Marco Rubio to consider revoking the visas of international students already enrolled at Harvard.
Nearly 6,800 international students attended Harvard in its most recent school year, comprising approximately 27% of the university’s population in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
This action followed the Trump administration’s freezing of billions of dollars in funding to the oldest and wealthiest US university, threats to Harvard’s tax-exempt status, and launch of several investigations into the school.
Trump stated that his administration could announce a deal with Harvard within the next week or so to resolve the White House’s campaign against the university, which has been engaged in a legal battle against the administration’s actions.
Harvard claims that Trump is retaliating against the university for not complying with the administration’s demands for control over the school’s governance, curriculum, and the ideological orientation of its faculty and students.
Harvard filed two separate lawsuits before Judge Burroughs, seeking to unfreeze around $2.5 billion in funding and to prevent the administration from blocking international students from attending the university. The latter lawsuit was filed after Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, announced that her department was immediately revoking Harvard’s student and exchange visitor program certification, allowing it to enroll foreign students.
Noem accused the university of fostering violence, antisemitism, and collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party, without providing evidence. This action was immediately blocked by the judge.
While the Department of Homeland Security has since challenged Harvard’s certification through a months-long administrative process, the judge said she planned to issue an injunction to maintain the status quo, which she officially did on Friday.
A week after the hearing, Trump signed his proclamation, citing Harvard’s acceptance of foreign money from China and what he considered to be the school’s inadequate responses to his administration’s demand for information on foreign students.
The administration has accused Harvard of creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students and allowing antisemitism to fester on its campus. Protests over the treatment of Palestinians during the war in Gaza have caused unrest on several US university campuses, including Harvard.
Human rights advocates have noted an increase in antisemitism and Islamophobia in the US due to the war. The Trump administration has not yet announced any actions against anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate, however.
Harvard’s own task forces on antisemitism and Islamophobia found widespread fear and bigotry at the university, as reported in late April.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/23/judge-trump-proclamation-harvard
