Harvard University sues Trump for stopping foreign student enrollment

Harvard University had sued the United States President Donald Trump over its move to block the prestigious university from enrolling and hosting foreign students.

A United States judge, Allison Burroughs, on Friday, March 23, 2025, temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s move to bar foreign students from Harvard University amid a worsening fight between the White House and the elite university, a court filing showed.

“The Trump administration is hereby enjoined from implementing… the revocation of Plaintiff’s SEVP (Student and Exchange Visitor Program) certification,” the judge ordered.

On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign nationals, throwing the future of thousands of students into doubt.

Trump stops Harvard University from enrolling foreign students

Trump is furious at Harvard – which has produced 162 Nobel prize winners – for rejecting his demand that it submit to oversight on admissions and hiring over his claims that it is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology.

His administration has already threatened to put $9 billion of government funding to Harvard under review, gone on to freeze a first tranche of $2.2 billion of grants and $60 million of official contracts, as well as targeting a Harvard Medical School researcher for deportation.

“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” said the lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court.

The loss of foreign nationals – more than a quarter of its student body – could prove costly to Harvard, which charges tens of thousands of dollars a year in tuition, AFP reported.

The Star