Harvard University is challenging the Trump administration’s decision to bar it from enrolling foreign students.
In a lawsuit filed in Boston on Friday, the Ivy League university said the government’s action violates the First Amendment and will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders”.
The renowned institution said it had been targeted for defying the White House’s political demands.
Since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second term, the US government has sought to fundamentally change the country’s universities.
“With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the university and its mission,” Harvard said. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”
The university also filed a temporary restraining order to block the Department of Homeland Security from carrying out the move.
If the Trump administration’s decision stands, the university would be unable to offer admission to new international students for at least the next two academic years.
Graduate schools like the Harvard Kennedy School, where almost half the student body comes from abroad, would be the worst affected.
Harvard said the White House’s move on Thursday puts the school at an immediate disadvantage as it competes for the world’s top students. Even if it regains the ability to host students, “future applicants may shy away from applying out of fear of further reprisals from the government”, the lawsuit said.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed on Thursday that it had acted against Harvard because the university had created an unsafe environment for Jewish students by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” on campus.
On 16 April, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanded that Harvard provide information about foreign students that might implicate them in violence or protests that could lead to their deportation.
Noem said Harvard could regain its ability to host foreign students if it produces records on foreign students within 72 hours.
