US judge blocks Trump’s bid to ban Harvard from enrolling foreign students

President Donald Trump’s attempt to halt Harvard’s enrollment of foreign students was overruled by a federal judge in the country, giving the prestigious university another victory as it battles multiple government restrictions and administration pressure.

While the Ivy League school files a lawsuit, District Judge Allison Burroughs’ order on Friday in Boston prevents Harvard from hosting international students.

Burroughs added, however, that the federal government was still able to review Harvard’s foreign admissions policies through standard legal procedures.

As Harvard’s pro-Palestine students demanded full disclosure of the country’s oldest and wealthiest university’s investments in companies connected to Israel and divestment from those companies, it became a polarizing debate about academic freedom and the right to protest against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Trump and his allies assert that Harvard and other US universities are unaccountable examples of liberal, anti-conservative bias, and “anti-Semitism.”

Harvard filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security in May after it abruptly terminated the school’s authorization to enroll foreign students and obtain visa paperwork, which was done in vain.

The decision would have required the roughly 7, 000 international students at Harvard, which account for about a quarter of its total enrolment and are a major source of income, to transfer or risk entering the US without the necessary paperwork. Harvard would have prohibited new students from enrolling abroad.

The university claimed that rejecting the White House’s demands to change Harvard policies on campus protests, admissions, and hiring was illegal retaliation.

Trump claimed that his administration has been negotiating with Harvard and that he has tried a number of tactics to thwart the institution’s efforts to host foreign students. He has cut roughly $3.2 billion in federal grants to the school.

In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump stated, “Many people have been looking for a solution to the large-scale irregularities that Harvard University has been addressing.”

A Deal may be announced over the next week or so, he said, adding that we have been working closely with Harvard. According to the statement, “A Settlement made on the basis that is currently being discussed will be “mindbogglingly” historical and very beneficial for our country.”