Judge says in ruling that Harvard had showed it would ‘sustain immediate and irreparable injury’
As we just reported, in her brief ruling granting Harvard’s restraining order against the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke its ability to enrol foreign students, district judge Allison Burroughs wrote that the university “made a sufficient showing … that, unless its motion for a temporary restraining order … is granted, it will sustain immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties”.
Key events
As we’ve been reporting, international students at Harvard University were ordered this week to transfer schools or lose their legal status following the Trump administration’s revocation of the university’s eligibility to enroll students from abroad.
While that order was swiftly blocked by a judge, it is one of a series of events creating uncertainty on campuses across the US. It follows the US government’s revocation of hundreds of student visas on various grounds, including minor infractions or participation in protests against the war in Gaza. (Some of those visas have been reinstated.) Academics have also felt the impact of funding cuts and subsequent hiring freezes, leading to hundreds looking to leave the US to work elsewhere.
Whether you are a student or an academic, we would like to hear how you have been affected. Are you considering leaving the US and working abroad? If you are an international student who had plans to study in the US, are you now considering studying elsewhere?
You can tell us if you are planning on leaving the US or changing your mind about studying there using the form via link below, or messaging us. Please share your story if you are 18 or over, anonymously if you wish.
Reuters reports that in her brief order blocking the policy for two weeks, district judge Allison Burroughs said Harvard had shown it could be harmed before there was an opportunity to hear the case in full.
Burroughs, an Obama appointee, scheduled hearings for 27 May and 29 May to consider next steps in the case.
District judge Allison Burroughs’ order provides temporary relief to the thousands of international students who were faced with being forced to transfer under a policy that Harvard called part of the administration’s broader effort to retaliate against it for refusing to “surrender its academic independence”.
Harvard enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, equal to 27% of total enrolment.
The Trump administration may appeal Burroughs’ ruling. Spokespeople for the justice department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Judge issues temporary order blocking the White House from revoking Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students
A US federal judge has blocked the government from revoking Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign students just hours after the elite college sued the Trump administration over its abrupt ban the day before on enrolling foreign students.
US district judge Allison Burroughs in Boston issued the temporary restraining order late this morning, freezing the policy that had been abruptly imposed on the university, based in nearby Cambridge, Massachusetts, yesterday.
Harvard University announced earlier this morning that it was challenging the Trump administration’s decision to bar the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students, calling it unconstitutional retaliation for the school previously defying the White House’s political demands.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston, Harvard said the government’s action a “blatant violation” of the first amendment of the US constitution and will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders”.
“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the 389-year-old school said in its suit.
The “department of government efficiency” (Doge), the group run by the billionaire Elon Musk tasked by the Trump administration to cut back on federal spending, has slashed US Census Bureau surveys it claims are “wasteful”.
According to a Doge post on X, the group “terminated” five separate surveys by the bureau. The group claims the surveys cost $16.5m. It did not specify which surveys were terminated.
The Associated Press reports there is a public process for changing government surveys and that Doge may be violating the law by canceling surveys without going through the proper process.
The US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, has been named the US’s special envoy for Syria. His appointment comes after the Trump administration announced this month that the US will be lifting its sanctions on the country, after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster.
“President Trump has outlined his clear vision of a prosperous Middle East and a stable Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors,” Barrack said on X. “I am proud to assume the role of the U.S. Special Envoy for Syria and support Secretary Rubio in the realization of the President’s vision.”
The US was one of many countries that placed sanctions on Syria during the decades-long rule of former Assad regime. The Assad government was overthrown in December.
“There’s a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace,” Trump said during a visit to the Middle East this month. “I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.”
According to Barrack’s post on X, the cessation of sanctions against Syria will help lead to the defeat of the Islamic State militant group.
Barrack, a private equity investor, has been a longtime friend of Trump.
Trump threatens 25% tariff on iPhones if they are not made in US
Dan Milmo
Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on iPhones if they are not made in the United States, as he stepped up the pressure on Apple to build its signature product in America.
The US president caused a pre-trading dip in Apple shares with a post on the Truth Social platform stating that iPhones sold inside the US must be made within the country’s borders. Trump said in the post
I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the US.
Apple shares dropped 2.5% in premarket trading on Trump’s comments, dragging down US stock index futures.
Trump alarmed Apple investors last month with a series of escalating tariff announcements on goods from China, where the majority of iPhones are assembled, which ratcheted up to total 145%. A couple of days later, however, the administration announced an exemption for smartphones and computers.
Soon afterwards, it was reported that Apple was planning to switch assembly of all iPhones for the US market to India in a bid to swerve the impact of a China trade war. The $3tn (£2.2tn) company is secretive about details of its production processes but analysts estimate that about 90% of its iPhones are assembled in China.
According to the Financial Times, Apple is considering sourcing from India the more than 60m iPhones sold in the US annually by the end of 2026. This would require more than doubling iPhone assembly in India.
Trump rebuked the tech company and its chief executive, Tim Cook, earlier this month over the switch. “I had a little problem with Tim Cook,” the president said, adding:
I said to Tim … we’ve treated you really good, we’ve put up with all the plants that you’ve built in China for years, now you got to build [for] us. We’re not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves … we want you to build here.
Faisal Ali
The US ambassador in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Ervin Massinga, has changed a harshly toned message that was posted on the embassy’s social media earlier today in which it initially called on Ethiopia to “cease the use of drone strikes against its own people”. Another almost identical message by the ambassador was posted afterwards, urging Ethiopia to “continue seeking peaceful resolutions and violence and prioritize the safety and wellbeing of its own citizens”.
The note by the ambassador was posted marking another year of fast-spreading conflicts across Ethiopia which have caused mass-displacement and created large lawless zones in the country. Government forces have been battling armed groups in the states of Oromia and Amhara and have reportedly used armed drones.
The change in language has been blasted by Ethiopians, including Jawar Mohammed, a prominent opposition figure, who accused the US of choosing “diplomatic convenience over moral clarity”. “This is a dangerous concession to the regime’s pressure that risks legitimizing state violence,” Mohammed posted on Facebook.
Reuters reports that Harvard’s case has been assigned to US district judge Allison Burroughs.
White House doubles down on stance on Harvard, calling lawsuit ‘frivolous’
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson dismissed the lawsuit in comments reported by Reuters.
“If only Harvard cared this much about ending the scourge of anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators on their campus they wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with,” Jackson said.
“Harvard should spend their time and resources on creating a safe campus environment instead of filing frivolous lawsuits,” she added.
Harvard’s president says school’s ‘refusal to surrender’ behind Trump administration’s ‘unlawful’ and ‘unwarranted’ action
Here’s more from the university’s president Alan Garber’s letter today to the Harvard community:
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.
We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action. It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities across the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams.
You can read the letter in full here via the Harvard Crimson student newspaper.
Per Michael’s report, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said yesterday that Harvard could have the “opportunity” to restore its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification by turning over within 72 hours a raft of records about international students, including video or audio of their protest activity over the past five years.
Reuters reports that in a letter to Harvard, which was attached to the complaint, Noem said the information was needed because the university had “created a hostile learning environment for Jewish students due to Harvard’s failure to condemn antisemitism”.
In a letter to the Harvard community today, the university’s president Alan Garber said Harvard had in fact already responded to those requests for information. He wrote:
The government has claimed that its destructive action is based on Harvard’s failure to comply with requests for information from the US Department of Homeland Security. In fact, Harvard did respond to the Department’s requests as required by law.
Michael Sainato
Here is an extract from my colleage Michael Sainato’s story on Harvard University suing the Trump administration over its abrupt ban yesterday on enrolling foreign students.
Harvard announced this morning that it was challenging the Trump administration’s decision to bar the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students, calling it unconstitutional retaliation for the school previously defying the White House’s political demands.
The institution added that it plans to file for a temporary restraining order to block the Department of Homeland Security from carrying out the move.
The dramatic developments at Harvard came a week before many students at Harvard are set to graduate.
The Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gave Harvard 72 hours to turn over all documents on all international students’ disciplinary records and paper, audio, or video records on protest activity over the past five years in order to have the “opportunity” to have its eligibility to enroll foreign students reinstated.
“The government’s action is unlawful,” said a statement from Harvard on the DHS action yesterday. “This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission.”
Meanwhile overseas governments expressed alarm at the Trump administration’s actions against Harvard as part of its latest assault on elite higher education in the US.
Prior to Harvard filing suit, the Chinese government early on Friday said the move to block foreign students from the school and oblige current ones to leave would only hurt the international standing of the US. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology extended an open invitation to Harvard international students and those accepted in response to the action against Harvard.
Former German health minister and alumnus of Harvard Karl Lauterbach called the action against Harvard “research policy suicide”. Germany’s research minister Dorothee Baer had also, before Harvard sued, urged the Trump administration to reverse its decision, calling it “fatal”.
Alice Speri
My colleague Alice Speri reports that Harvard, for now the only university barred from hosting international students, anticipated such a move from the Trump administration.
Last month, the university told admitted foreign students that they could simultaneously accept offers at both Harvard and at universities abroad – something it had never allowed before. In an email, admissions officials cited “recent events here in the United States and at Harvard” and recognised that foreign students may want a “backup plan”.
But Harvard’s current and prospective international students are not the only ones whose education in the US is on the line. Advocates had already warned of dropping enrollment in light of the recent visa revocations as well as the targeting of some pro-Palestinian students for detention and deportation. Those only add to pre-existing bureaucratic obstacles, including rising visa denial rates – from 15% a decade ago to 41% last year – and slow visa processing.
A full accounting of the impact of Trump’s policies won’t be possible until the fall, when universities are required to report their matriculation data. But a global survey of universities published earlier this month shows some early signs, including graduate student enrollment that dropped 13% this spring, while a separate analysis of student visas showed a 14% drop in the number of visas issued so far this year.
Those trends will only be compounded by billions in funding cuts that have already destabilised research institutions and risk sending talented students elsewhere, analysts warn.
“It certainly adds to the stress of a prospective or current international student who, in addition to worrying about immigration policy, has to worry about whether they will have uninterrupted funding if they’re doing a PhD,” said Julia Kent, vice-president, best practices and strategic initiatives, at the Council of Graduate Schools, a group promoting graduate education and research. She noted that some foreign students were so anxious about the administration’s campaign against foreign students that they feared driving their cars.
It’s creating a climate of chaos and uncertainty.
So far, universities have attempted to mitigate the impact of Trump’s policies, discouraging foreign students from traveling abroad during breaks and offering to connect them with immigration attorneys. But that’s not much in the face of an administration willing to go to unprecedented lengths in its effort to submit universities to its will.
‘Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,’ university writes in legal complaint
Reuters has more from Harvard’s complaint against the Trump administration’s move to block its ability to enrol international students.
In its complaint Harvard said the revocation would force it to retract admissions for thousands of people, and has thrown “countless” academic programs, clinics, courses and research laboratories into disarray, just a few days before graduation.
“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the 389-year-old school said.
Let’s recap quickly on how we got here.
The latest decision from the homeland security department to block Harvard’s ability to enrol foreign students and the university’s subsequent (and second) lawsuit against the Trump administration comes amid escalating tensions between federal officials and Harvard over the administration’s claims that the university has implemented inadequate responses to antisemitism on its campus – and Harvard’s refusal to capitulate to Donald Trump’s political demands.
The Trump administration terminated a further $450m in grants to the university earlier this month, following its cancellation of $2.2bn in federal funding in April over which Harvard first sued the administration. It is the first, and so far only, university to do so.
A Trump-appointed antisemitism taskforce has pointed to “just how radical Harvard has become” as nationwide anti-war protesters – including students – demonstrated against Israel’s military assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 53,000 Palestinian people in the last 18 months.
The Trump administration has also ordered the university to dismantle its diversity, equity and inclusion programming, restrict student protests and disclose admission details to federal officials.
Harvard refused to bow to those demands, with its president, Alan Garber, saying in April that “no government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue”. He went on:
The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights … The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s first amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI. And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production and dissemination of knowledge.
An extract from Harvard’s complaint reads:
With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission.
It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard 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.
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem yesterday ordered the termination of Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, effective with the 2025-2026 academic year, accusing the university of “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party”.
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