Photo: WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A federal judge in Boston on Friday blocked the Trump Administration from revoking Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students.
This comes just hours after Harvard filed the motion in federal court for a temporary restraining order against the administration.
Harvard also filed a complaint against the administration Friday morning over the Department of Homeland Security’s revocation of Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification. DHS also said current international students at the university must transfer or lose their legal status.
This is the latest move in the battle between the administration and the university.
Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, said in a statement that the revocation of the certification “continues a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body.”
“We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action. It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams,” he continued.
In its letter to Harvard, DHS claimed the revocation is a result of Harvard not responding to a request from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, demanding the university provide information on the criminal activities and misconduct of international students.
Garber said the university did, in fact, respond to the request.
DHS also said Harvard’s leadership “has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment,” and that “many” of the agitators are international students.
The administration also froze $2.7 billion of Harvard’s federal funding, after the university rejected a list of demands that included getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in hiring and admissions.
The funding freeze prompted Havard to file an earlier lawsuit against the administration last month.