A federal judge in the United States has blocked President Donald Trump’s bid to block Harvard from enrolling foreign students, delivering the prestigious university another victory as it challenges multiple government sanctions amid a battle with the White House.
Friday’s order by District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston preserves Harvard’s ability to host international students while a lawsuit filed by the Ivy League school plays out in the courts.
Burroughs, however, added that the federal government still had the authority to review Harvard’s foreign admission policies through normal processes outlined in law.
Harvard found itself embroiled in a polarising debate about academic freedom and the right to protest against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza as its pro-Palestine students demanded full disclosure of the country’s oldest and wealthiest university’s investments in companies linked to Israel and divestment from those companies.
Trump and his allies claim that Harvard, and other US universities that saw similar protests, are unaccountable bastions of liberal, anti-conservative bias and “anti-Semitism”.
In May, Harvard sued the Department of Homeland Security after the agency abruptly withdrew the school’s certification to enrol foreign students and issue paperwork for their visas, skirting most of its usual procedures.
The action would have forced Harvard’s roughly 7,000 international students – about a quarter of its total enrolment and a major source of income – to transfer or risk being in the US without the necessary documents. New foreign students would have been barred from coming to Harvard.
The university said it was experiencing illegal retaliation for rejecting the White House’s demands to overhaul Harvard policies related to campus protests, admissions and hiring.
Trump, who has cut about $3.2bn of federal grants for Harvard and tried numerous tactics to block the institution from hosting international students, said that his administration has been holding negotiations with Harvard.
“Many people have been asking what is going on with Harvard University and their largescale improprieties that we have been addressing, looking for a solution,” Trump said in a post on Friday on Truth Social.
“We have been working closely with Harvard, and it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so,” he said. “If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.”
Trump did not provide any details about the purported “deal”.
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