Harvard University, responding swiftly to President Trump’s proclamation barring international students from enrolling this week, filed a new claim against the administration Thursday evening.
It was also expected to ask a federal judge to block the order immediately.
The White House executive order, issued at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, was the third time in the past month that the Trump administration has tried to use its power to ban international enrollment at Harvard in what the university has said is a violation of its First Amendment rights.
In court papers, Harvard accused the White House of trying to circumvent an earlier court order that had blocked the Department of Homeland Security from banning international enrollment at Harvard. The university said that President Trump had violated the law again by invoking the executive power of the presidency against the school when the agency’s efforts had failed.
Harvard has become a focal point of the administration’s effort to conform higher education to Mr. Trump’s political agenda.
Alan M. Garber, Harvard’s president, issued a statement shortly after the court filing saying that Harvard’s international office was reaching out to students and scholars who might be affected by the White House action.
He added that the university was developing “contingency plans” to ensure that international students and scholars could continue to pursue their work at Harvard this summer and through the coming academic year.
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The latest filing, an amended complaint, followed a string of court actions by the university against the administration, part of a battle that began in April, when Harvard refused to comply with a list of federal demands.
The government asked, among other things, for Harvard to bar students hostile to American values and allow an audit of faculty and students to measure “viewpoint diversity” at the school.
In response, the administration said it was pulling nearly $3 billion of the university’s federal contracts and grants.
The administration originally portrayed its focus on Harvard as an effort to combat campus antisemitism, but has broadened its crusade to include diversity, equity and inclusion programs and the school’s ties to China.
The president’s proclamation appeared to affect only newly arriving international students at Harvard, including about 300 first-year students who are set to begin classes this fall. It was unclear how many newly arriving graduate students are international.
Mr. Trump, in the same proclamation, also urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to consider revoking current visas for Harvard students, a move that would affect the school’s entire international enrollment.
An estimated 5,000 international students are currently enrolled at Harvard, and another 2,000 recent graduates are in the United States on visas permitting students to remain temporarily after graduation to work.
The earlier ban attempts had been issued by the Department of Homeland Security and have been temporarily blocked by Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the Federal District Court in Boston, where Harvard has filed two lawsuits against the administration.
In its court filing on Thursday, Harvard acted by amending one of those lawsuits, and was expected to ask Judge Burroughs to issue an immediate order banning the proclamation’s enforcement as well.
Harvard’s amended complaint argues that the law cited by the White House is not applicable. The law gives the president authority to protect the country from a class of “aliens” deemed detrimental to the United States.
“But the president is not spending entry for a class of aliens,” Harvard’s filing noted. The same international students who would be barred from Harvard could come to the United States and enroll at another campus, the complaint said.
Citing news media reports, Harvard’s complaint said that the administration had convened a group of senior officials to brainstorm additional ways to punish Harvard, even after Judge Burroughs issued an order on May 23 banning the Department of Homeland Security’s initial plan.
Meantime, Mr. Rubio, in a cable dated May 30, announced a “pilot program” to conduct enhanced vetting of visa applicants’ social media and chose Harvard as the sole school for the experiment, the complaint said.
Harvard’s filing argued that the president’s actions were not aimed at protecting the “interests of the United States,” but instead at pursing a government vendetta against Harvard.
The government’s efforts to bar international students at Harvard “fundamentally alter the education that Harvard endeavors to provide to all its students — including domestic students — as it prepares them to contribute to and lead in our global society,” the university’s complaint said.
Michael C. Bender contributed reporting.
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.
The post Harvard Will Ask Judge to Block Trump’s Order Barring Foreign Students appeared first on New York Times.
