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Thayer Hall in Harvard Yard.
Photo by Dylan Goodman
A federal judge on Thursday granted the University’s motion to block an executive order by President Trump banning international students from entering the U.S. to attend Harvard.
Judge Allison Burroughs of U.S. District Court in Massachusetts had already halted the government’s effort to terminate Harvard’s participation in the Student Exchange Visa Program. Her Thursday ruling came hours after the University amended its visa lawsuit in response to the executive order, which was signed Wednesday.
The visa action and the executive order are part of an “escalating campaign of retaliation by the government in clear 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,” the University’s complaint says.
In a message to the Harvard community Thursday, President Alan Garber called the Trump order “yet another illegal step taken by the administration to retaliate against Harvard.”
On Friday, Garber noted that the Schools are working “to ensure that our international students and scholars will be able to pursue their academic work fully.” In addition, the Harvard International Office is assisting students whose plans have been disrupted by the government’s actions.
Burroughs has set a June 16 hearing for further arguments in the case.
