A federal district judge delayed ruling Monday on whether to continue blocking President Trump’s proclamation that would bar international students from attending Harvard University.
The judge, Allison D. Burroughs, left a temporary order against the proclamation in place for the moment. She said she would rule by next week on whether to extend the order to remain in effect until the conclusion of a lawsuit Harvard has filed against the administration over the issue.
The delay followed a 90-minute hearing in federal court in Boston Monday, during which a lawyer for Harvard argued that the university had been subjected to “the most irregular and improper treatment that a university has ever suffered at the hands of the government.” He called the situation reminiscent of the McCarthy era.
In his proclamation, issued on June 4, President Trump invoked a 70-year-old law that gives the White House wide authority to block foreigners whom it views as dangerous to the United States from entering the country.
Ian Gershengorn, Harvard’s lawyer, argued that though the authority had been used dozens of times since it was enacted, it had never before been used against a domestic entity — until now, against Harvard.
Tiberius Davis, a Justice Department lawyer representing the administration, denied in court that the administration was singling out Harvard for adverse treatment. Mr. Davis asserted instead that the president issued the proclamation because Harvard had failed to respond adequately to requests for information about its international students, and because it maintained ties to China and “other foreign adversaries.”
The administration has accused Harvard of tolerating campus antisemitism and of continuing relations with countries that present national security concerns, specifically China and Iran.
“The power is with Harvard to fix this and make it go away,” Mr. Davis told the court, adding that a lot of universities had been more willing to address problems cited by the government.
Harvard has called the president’s proclamation an attempt at an “end run” around other court injunctions that had blocked earlier moves by the administration to prevent foreign students from attending the university. Lawyers for the government argued in court papers that the president was entirely within his rights in issuing the proclamation.
The Trump administration has tried four times to restrict or end Harvard’s enrollment of foreign students. If it succeeds, about 7,000 students and scholars could be affected, potentially delivering a disabling blow to the university’s finances, curriculum and identity.
Alan M. Garber, the president of Harvard, has accused the Trump administration of waging a politically motivated crusade against the school, and said the actions were retaliation “for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty and our student body.”
In court documents, Harvard officials have described travel disruptions affecting students around the world as a result of the administration’s actions, as well as a “palpable sense of fear, confusion, and uncertainty on Harvard’s campus about the future of its international students.”
One student who arrived at Logan International Airport in Boston was forced to return to India, and another was forced to return to China, the officials said. Visas were denied to two students in Munich, and a visiting professor’s visa appointment in Tel Aviv was canceled without him being able to reschedule.
Harvard said it had been flooded with inquiries from incoming international students about deferring their enrollment. At least one student admitted to Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health has decided to withdraw, despite holding a valid visa, because of the uncertainty, the university said. And a sponsor withdrew a $50,000 grant to an incoming student at Harvard Law School.
In an earlier hearing, shortly after the case was first filed, Judge Burroughs expressed concern about the Trump administration’s disruptive effect on the university’s longstanding tradition of hosting foreign students.
“People are afraid and reluctant to come here,” she said in court last month, adding that she wanted a “stopgap” on the harm.
Judge Burroughs is also expected to rule on whether the Trump administration can take away the university’s authorization to sponsor international students, a step that would effectively keep the students from obtaining the visas they would need to attend. There is a temporary hold on that ban as well.
Judge Burroughs had asked lawyers for Harvard and the Trump administration to meet and draft an injunction that would extend that order, preventing the administration from interfering with the school’s international students until the lawsuit is resolved.
The two sides, however, have been unable to agree on how to word the injunction, according to court papers filed last week.
The Justice Department argued that Harvard wanted an “overbroad and unnecessary” order. The only reason Harvard would want such “broad language,” they said, “is to sweep in other potential actions by the government.”
In their court filing, Harvard’s lawyers argued that broad language was necessary because the government was “committed to continuing — indeed to intensifying — its retaliatory campaign,” one that can “throw Harvard and its international community into turmoil.”
The litigation began last month when the Department of Homeland Security said it was revoking Harvard’s authority to sponsor international students under a system called the Student Exchange and Visitor Program.
After Judge Burroughs said she intended to block that action with a temporary injunction, the White House issued its proclamation, saying that Harvard was unfit to host students. It was an unusual use of presidential power, and signaled that the administration was willing to use almost any tool in its arsenal against Harvard.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in late May that he was pursuing a plan to examine the social media of incoming international students at Harvard, and more broadly, to aggressively revoke the visas of international students in the United States who are members of the Chinese Communist Party.
In April, the administration froze more than $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts, after Harvard rejected demands that would have reshaped the university, including a ban on admitting students deemed hostile to American values, an audit of the political ideology of enrolled students and faculty members, and regular status updates to the administration.
In that case, Harvard is suing separately.
Stephanie Saul reports on colleges and universities, with a recent focus on the dramatic changes in college admissions and the debate around diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education.
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