Court blocks Trump bid to bar international students from Harvard

CAMBRIDGE: A US court has stopped President Donald Trump’s attempt to stop Harvard University from accepting international students. 

The judge said foreign students should be protected while the legal fight continues. This comes as Trump continues to pressure top universities over what he calls political bias.

Thousands of Harvard students in crimson-trimmed gowns celebrated their graduation on Thursday.

Trump has made Harvard the central target of his campaign against elite US universities, which he has also threatened with funding freezes over what he claims is liberal bias and anti-Semitism.

Judge Allison Burroughs said she would later issue a preliminary injunction that “gives some protection” to international students while the two sides argue over the legality of Trump’s position.

“Our students are terrified, and we’re already having people transfer to other universities,” Harvard’s lawyer Ian Gershengorn said during the hearing in Boston.

In an eleventh-hour filing before the hearing, the Trump administration issued a formal notice of intent to withdraw Harvard’s ability to enrol foreign students – triggering the official process.

The filing gave Harvard 30 days to produce evidence explaining why it should not be blocked from hosting and enrolling international students – who currently make up 27 per cent of Harvard’s student body.

Burroughs had already temporarily halted the policy and extended that pause on Thursday, pending the new injunction. She said she would examine whether Trump officials had acted with “a retaliatory motive.”

A law professor in the packed courtroom said the Trump administration was prolonging the suffering of students.

“Harvard is in this purgatory. What is an international student to do?” said the Harvard Law School graduate, who declined to be named.

‘Pride and approval’

There remained “this spectre of other actions” the government could still take to block Harvard from hosting international students, the judge added.

The Ivy League institution has continually drawn Trump’s ire while publicly rejecting his administration’s repeated demands to surrender control over recruitment, curricula, and research priorities.

“Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they’re doing is getting in deeper and deeper,” Trump said on Wednesday.

Harvard President Alan Garber received a huge cheer when he acknowledged international students attending the graduation with their families, calling it “as it should be.” He did not mention the Trump dispute directly.

Garber received a standing ovation, which one student told AFP was “revealing of the community’s pride and approval.”

He has led the legal resistance within US academia after Trump targeted several prestigious universities – including Columbia, which made sweeping concessions to the administration in an effort to recover $400 million in withdrawn federal grants.

Garber has acknowledged that Harvard faces challenges with anti-Semitism and with fostering a climate where a diversity of views can be freely expressed.

Graduating student Uzma Farheen, from India, who earned a Master of Public Health, said the day was one of “love for the global community.”

“We stand united to powerfully represent what Harvard stands for – truth, integrity, and inclusion,” she told AFP.

Before the ceremony – where stage and screen legend Rita Moreno received an honorary degree – members of the Harvard band in crimson blazers marched through the narrow streets of Cambridge.

Hundreds of students gathered in front of a large stage to hear speeches – including one entirely in Latin – within a grassy area closed off to the public for security reasons.

Many students from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government carried inflatable plastic globes during the ceremony to symbolise the international character of the school.

“In the last two months, it’s been very difficult. I’ve felt extremely vulnerable,” said Lorena Mejia, 36, a Colombian graduate who earned a Master in Public Administration and proudly wore robes identifying her nationality.