HQ Team
May 24, 2025: A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the US administration from revoking Harvard’s ability to enroll international students and to sponsor global scholars.
The ruling by US District Judge Allison D. Burroughs blocks the government from “implementing, instituting, maintaining, or giving effect” to the revocation, according to a Harvard statement.
Harvard’s initial complaint on the matter, called the Trump order “a blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act.”
Harvard’s actions were prompted by the US President Donald Trump administration’s latest escalation in its dispute with the University.
Failure to comply
In a May 22 letter, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote that the University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification had been revoked, with immediate effect.
The official claimed the action was a result of Harvard’s failure to adequately comply with an April 16 government request seeking records related to international students.
The letter also cited grievances against the University that were unrelated to Harvard Student and Exchange Visitor Program participation, applicable regulations, or Harvard international students.
The motion for a temporary restraining order, filed shortly after the main complaint, sought an immediate halt to the government’s action, arguing that the revocation would inflict irreparable harm on the University and its students.
‘Undisguised retaliation’
It cites the human costs of no longer being able to sponsor or host thousands of students and scholars, whose lives and work face major disruptions.
The action by the Trump administration is “undisguised retaliation,” and “quintessential arbitrary, irrational, and unilateral executive action,” the motion says.
“The effects on Harvard’s students — all of its students — will be devastating. Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”
In a message sent to the community, Harvard President Alan Garber said that the University has complied with the request to the extent required by law. He condemned the Noem order and vowed to fight it.
2025-26 academic year
“The revocation continues a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body,” he said.
International students at Harvard hail from more than 140 countries and constitute about a quarter of its student body.
In her letter, Noem said the certificate revocation means Harvard cannot host nonimmigrant international students or scholars on F- or J-visas for the 2025-26 academic year.
