 has blocked President Donald Trump's bid to block Harvard from enrolling foreign students){kind=link}
A federal judge in the United States(US) has blocked President Donald Trump’s bid to block Harvard from enrolling foreign students, delivering the prestigious university another victory as it challenges multiple government sanctions amid a battle with the White House. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston preserved Harvard’s ability to host international students while a lawsuit filed by the Ivy League school plays out in the courts.
The judge added that the federal government still had the authority to review Harvard’s foreign admission policies through normal processes outlined in law. Harvard found itself embroiled in a polarizing debate about academic freedom and the right to protest against Israel’s ongoing actions in Gaza as its pro-Palestine students demanded full disclosure of the country’s oldest and wealthiest university’s investments in companies linked to Israel and divestment from those companies.
Trump and his allies claim that Harvard, and other US universities that saw similar protests, are unaccountable bastions of liberal, anti-conservative bias and “anti-Semitism”. In May, Harvard sued the Department of Homeland Security after the agency abruptly withdrew the school’s certification to enroll foreign students and issue paperwork for their visas, skirting most of its usual procedures.
The action would have forced Harvard’s roughly 7,000 international students – about a quarter of its total enrollment and a major source of income – to transfer or risk being in the US without the necessary documents. New foreign students would have been barred from coming to Harvard. The university said it was experiencing illegal retaliation for rejecting the White House’s demands to overhaul Harvard policies related to campus protests, admissions, and hiring.
Trump said that his administration has been holding negotiations with Harvard. “Many people have been asking what is going on with Harvard University and their largescale improprieties that we have been addressing, looking for a solution,” Trump said in a post on Friday on Truth Social. “We have been working closely with Harvard, and it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so,” he said.
“If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.” Trump did not provide any details about the purported “deal”.
In a recent development, Trump has stated that Harvard University has acted “extremely appropriately” during negotiations with his administration, announcing that a deal could soon be achieved. The Trump administration is currently holding talks with a small circle of Harvard’s leadership as the two parties try to reach a deal.
Harvard has refused to comply with the Trump administration’s demands, arguing that they exceed its lawful authority and infringe on the university’s independence and constitutional rights. Harvard President Alan Garber emphasized that “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights”.
The university has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, requesting the court to restore more than $2.2 billion in research dollars and arguing that Trump’s actions were “retribution for Harvard’s 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”.