- The Trump administration on Thursday banned Harvard University from enrolling international students. The next day Harvard filed a lawsuit countering the ban.
- In response, a federal judge has issued a temporary stop on the government's ban. Now Harvard and the Trump administration will proceed to a hearing.
- Foreign governments say they are "investigating" the matter. Others have condemned the ban. Meanwhile, foreign students wait with their lives in limbo.
After months of political and legal contention between the nation’s oldest Ivy League school and the Trump administration, President Donald Trump announced on Thursday a ban on Harvard’s enrollment of international students — affecting 6,800 students.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Harvard fostered a community of “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators,” referring to allegations that Harvard allowed Chinese paramilitary troops to train on its campus, as well as previous claims that Harvard allowed and even supported antisemitic discrimination.
On Friday, Harvard filed a lawsuit against the ban. Hours later, Judge Allison Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the ban, per wire reports.
Burroughs said Harvard had shown in its lawsuit that, unless the restraining order was granted, “it will sustain immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties.”
“Thus, a TRO is justified to preserve the status quo pending a hearing,” she added.
Foreign governments condemn the ban on their students
Either Harvard complies with a list of demands from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem — including turning over disciplinary records and videos and audio of “illegal” and “dangerous or violent” activity from international students — within 72 hours, or it and the Trump administration will proceed to a legal hearing.
Either way, the lives of thousands of students are left in limbo.
One of them is the 23-year-old future queen of Belgium, Princess Elisabeth, who just completed her first year at Harvard. The Belgian Royal Palace said it is currently investigating the ban that threatens her academic career at Harvard, according to Reuters.
Other affected students include individuals hailing from China, India, Pakistan.
Shreya Mishra Reddy was admitted to Harvard in 2023, according to a BBC report. She, along with nearly 7,000 other international students, including 700 from India and 2,300 from China, make up 27 percent of Harvard’s enrollment, the BBC said.
They also contribute to Harvard’s bottom line. And nationally, in 2023-2024, international student enrollment added $43.8 billion to the economy, according to NAFSA, an association of international educators.
“(Harvard is) the ultimate school that anybody in India wants to get into... (This) has been very difficult for my family to hear. They’re still trying to process it,” Reddy told the BBC. “I hope Harvard will stand for us and some solution can be worked out.”
Chinese student Kat Xie, a STEM major, said she is “in shock.” She wants to stay in the U.S., but her options are “all very troublesome and expensive.”
Beijing has also condemned the Trump administration’s move, calling it the “politicization” of education and saying it “only harm(s) the image and international standing of the United States,” according to CBS News
Harvard and the Trump administration prepare their legal cases
Trump made clear his belief that many institutes of higher education are corrupt even before he re-entered the Oval Office in January 2025. Pro-Palestinian protests, centering on the Israel-Hamas war, have only inflamed his feelings against Ivy League schools like Harvard and Columbia.
The president of Harvard, Alan Garber, somewhat agreed with Trump when he said that Harvard needed “greater intellectual diversity,” including more conservative voices. Harvard investigated itself and found legitimate instances of harassment against Arab and Israeli students, leading it to promise to combat such instances, per school reports.
But Harvard has pushed back at Trump’s attempts to repeal its tax-exempt status, stem federal research funding and now block student enrollment.
“As a result of your refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies, you have lost this privilege,” Noem wrote to the university.
Harvard has pushed back sharply.
“The government has claimed that its destructive action is based on Harvard’s failure to comply with requests for information from the US Department of Homeland Security. In fact, Harvard did respond to the Department’s requests as required by law,” said President Garber in a statement.
Harvard also wrote in its lawsuit, “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.”
“(This 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.”
The lawsuit also called the ban a “blatant violation of the First Amendment” and the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution.