Judge to block Trump from cutting Harvard’s international student programme

BOSTON:A federal judge said on Thursday that she would issue an order that would continue to block President Donald Trump’s administration from immediately revoking Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston announced her intention to issue a broad preliminary injunction shortly after the administration revealed it plans to pursue a new, lengthier administrative process to block the students’ enrollment.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security changed course ahead of a hearing before Burroughs, which came on the same day as Harvard’s commencement ceremonies, over whether to extend a temporary order blocking the Trump administration from revoking the Ivy League school’s right to host international students.

The department in a notice sent to Harvard near midnight on Wednesday said it would now give the school 30 days to submit evidence to contest its plans to revoke its certification under a federal programme allowing it to enroll non-U.S. students.

Harvard will also have the ability to pursue an administrative appeal of any agency decision, U.S. Department of Justice attorney Tiberius Davis said as he argued there was now no need for a court order blocking the administration’s actions.

But Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, said she believed a broad preliminary injunction protecting Harvard and students was necessary while that administrative process played out.

She expressed skepticism that Harvard’s fate would be any different at the conclusion of the administrative process, saying, “Aren’t we still going to end up back here at the same place?” And she expressed concern about whether the administration had fully complied with her temporary restraining order, pointing to a declaration Harvard submitted on Wednesday detailing how visas for incoming students had been recently revoked. Burroughs said it “seems to suggest things are happening in violation of the TRO order, correct?” Davis said he was not aware of any violation.

Ian Gershengorn, a lawyer for Harvard, told Burroughs that an injunction protecting Harvard during the administrative process was necessary, saying the school was worried about the administration’s efforts to retaliate against it. “The First Amendment harms we are suffering are real and continuing,” he said.

Burroughs said her earlier temporary restraining order would remain in effect while lawyers for both sides negotiate over the terms of the injunction. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university says DHS’s action is part of an “unprecedented and retaliatory attack on academic freedom at Harvard,” which is pursuing a separate lawsuit challenging the administration’s decision to terminate nearly $3 billion in federal research funding.

Harvard argues the Trump administration is retaliating against it for refusing to accede to its demands to control the school’s governance, curriculum and the ideology of its faculty and students.