A federal judge blocks Trump's ban on enrolling international students at Harvard.
The university had filed a lawsuit against the government for what it considers an "illegal and unjustified action."
WashingtonHarvard responds and stands up to Donald Trump again. Less than 24 hours after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that prohibited the granting of visas and permits to international students who wanted to enroll at the prestigious university, the center has filed a lawsuit in court due to renewed pressure from the Trump administration. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem accused Harvard of fomenting "violence and antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus." Just hours after Harvard filed the lawsuit, a federal judge in Boston temporarily blocked the government order.
Judge Allison D. Burroughs sided with Harvard in its argument, according to which implementing such a measure would cause "immediate and irreparable harm" to the university, as the center's administration expressed in its brief this morning.
"We condemn this unlawful and unjustified action," said Harvard President Alan M. Garber in a letter to the academic community this Friday. And he added: "It jeopardizes the future of thousands of students and researchers across the university and serves as a warning to countless other students at universities and colleges across the country who have come to the United States to pursue their studies and realize their dreams." The suspension of visas for international students not only affects the very essence of the university, but also significantly impacts the university's income. Trump, who has already suspended contracts and federal funding for the university, wants to further strangle Harvard.
"It's incredible. Just a year ago, it was unthinkable. I've been a professor at Harvard for 25 years and I've never seen anything like this," professor and biologist Gonzalo Giribet told ARA. Like many other professors at the university, the announcement took him by surprise. "The first thing I did today was write to everyone in my lab to ask if they want to talk, and I've already spoken with some of the students who have international visas. We don't know yet how the order will be executed; everyone is confused," explains Giribet. Of the 15 students in his lab, six are international. Giribet emphasizes that a quarter of Harvard's student body, the majority of whom are PhD or master's students, are foreigners.
"This is having a huge impact and will continue to have a huge impact. It's not like you're saying, 'Look, this is a person who has to come for a year and now they can't come.' These are people who are already here now, who are pursuing their degree, who are pursuing their PhD, who perhaps have a six-year or four-year program, and now they're being told they can't continue," Gi points out.
Her lab, which focuses on research in biodiversity and evolutionary issues, has already noticed the Trump administration's funding freezes. "My research has been affected, among other things, because last week all our projects were canceled due to the withdrawal of funds. The university, for now, has made a plan until June 30th and then another for next year. But how long will that last? I don't know. This is affecting everyone at the university, all types of research," she explains. After the first suspension of funds, last week the Trump administration announced another cut of $450 million in grants.
Harvard is one of the richest universities in the United States and has an endowment (endowment) of more than $53 billion, a kind of reserve to resist. Even so, Giribet points out, a good part of the endowment "can't be touched" so easily. Furthermore, it remains to be seen how Trump's other threat to the university, about eliminating the tax exemption it enjoys, will end. "There's this idea that they're trying to impose a tax on the endowment "Which, of course, would be terrible," the professor points out.
Culture war
The Trump administration is waging a culture war against some of the nation's leading universities, accusing them of allowing "antisemitism" on their campuses. Republicans have long waged a crusade against Ivy League schools (Harvard and Columbia, among others) for their equality, diversity, and equity policies. When the Gaza war protests erupted on campuses, Republicans and conservative groups accused protesters of being antisemitic and exploited the attacks to target the universities.
This lawsuit is the second Harvard has filed against the Trump administration, after it also took Harvard to court last month over the president's economic pressure to interfere with its academic independence. In April, the US government suspended $60 million in federal contracts and froze $2.2 billion in federal funding for the university after it refused to yield to the administration's demands to influence the academic curriculum. Under accusations of "anti-Semitism"Trump demanded that Harvard close all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and review those areas that show "blatant evidence of antisemitism." Regarding this last demand, he also urged the prestigious university to subject certain departments and programs to an external audit.