A US federal judge for the District Court of Massachusetts on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from banning Harvard College’s enrollment of international students.
Judge Allison Burroughs granted Harvard’s motion for a temporary restraining order and effectively enjoined the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from revoking Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, one of Harvard’s federally certified programs to enroll international students.
Harvard filed its 72-page complaint early Friday, alleging that the order violated the Due Process Clause, the First Amendment, and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). First, Harvard stated that its procedural due process rights were infringed because there was no “adequate notice of the grounds for withdrawal of Harvard’s SEVP certification and opportunity to avoid those grounds,” and Harvard was given no meaningful opportunity to respond to the allegations. Second, Harvard argued that the Trump administration’s actions violated the First Amendment since the university would be “punished until it alters its viewpoints to satisfy the [Trump] Administration’s demands.” Specifically, the school stated that the First Amendment “prohibits government officials from relying on the threat of invoking legal sanctions and other means of coercion … to achieve the suppression of disfavored speech.” Finally, Harvard alleged that the DHS violated the APA, which holds that a court shall “hold unlawful and set aside agency action … found to be … contrary to constitutional right, power, privilege, or immunity.”
On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered the DHS to terminate Harvard’s SEVP certification in a press release. Just over a month ago, Noem also announced the termination of two DHS grants totaling over $2.7 million to Harvard, contending that the university is “bending the knee to antisemitism” and “coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.”
Over 7,000 visa holders are impacted by Friday’s ruling, as well as countless Harvard programs specifically tailored toward international students. The next hearing for the case will occur next week.
