Late Friday afternoon, a federal judge granted Harvard’s request for a preliminary injunction—halting, for now, the Trump administration’s attempt to prevent the University from hosting international students.
On May 22, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had announced it was revoking Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, which would strip the University of its ability to host international students on its campus. The move was part of a multipronged effort to prevent the University from enrolling foreign students, who make up about 27 percent of Harvard’s overall student body, though the proportions vary by school.
In a hearing on May 29, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs granted Harvard’s request for a temporary restraining order against the government’s SEVP restriction. On Friday, she issued a broad injunction that stops the Trump administration’s policy from going into effect while the case proceeds in court.
Burroughs’s three-page ruling forbids federal agents from “implementing, instituting, maintaining, or giving any force or effect” to the DHS announcement. She also ordered the government to tell employees at “each consulate, embassy, field office, and port of entry” to “disregard” the restrictions placed on Harvard’s international students and “restore every visa holder and applicant to the position” they would have had if the revocation had never been announced.
Burroughs gave the government 72 hours to comply with the ruling and to file a report “describing the steps taken to ensure compliance.”
Harvard filed a separate federal suit in April, also before Judge Burroughs, challenging the Trump administration’s revocation of nearly $3 billion in research grants. Less than two hours before Burroughs issued Friday’s ruling on international students, President Donald Trump posted 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. They have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right.”
A University spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
