365bet¹Ù·½ÍøÕ¾

Watch CBS News

Judge blocks Trump administration from preventing foreign students from traveling to Harvard

Trump restricts foreign students from Harvard
President Trump bans most international students from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard 01:22

A federal judge late Thursday temporarily blocked President Trump's move to ban foreign students from traveling to the United States to attend Harvard University, hours after the Ivy League school called the policy illegal retaliation for Harvard's rejection of White House demands.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs . In a brief ruling, Burroughs barred the Trump administration from implementing the new policy.

In filed earlier Thursday, the university called the president's action an end-run around a previous court order by Burroughs last month, which blocked the Department of Homeland Security from revoking Harvard's ability to host foreign students.

The filing attacked Trump's legal justification for the action — a federal law allowing him to block a "class of aliens" deemed detrimental to the nation's interests. Targeting only those who are coming to the U.S. to study at Harvard doesn't qualify as a "class of aliens," Harvard said in its filing.

"The President's actions thus are not undertaken to protect the 'interests of the United States,' but instead to pursue a government vendetta against Harvard," the university wrote.

The amended complaint came in a lawsuit filed last month challenging the previous action from Homeland Security, arguing it violated the school's First Amendment rights.

CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment on the TRO.

If Trump's measure were to stand, it would block thousands of students who are scheduled to come to the campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for summer and fall terms. International students make up about a quarter of the school's student body.

"Harvard's more than 7,000 F-1 and J-1 visa holders — and their dependents — have become pawns in the government's escalating campaign of retaliation," Harvard wrote.

The Trump administration is seeking to halt billions in federal funding to the school after Harvard rejected the government's demands to change its disciplinary practices, end diversity, equity and inclusion programs and commission an external audit of some academic departments. 

The Trump administration has argued that amid last year's pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, Harvard and other schools have not done enough to address antisemitism at their schools. Harvard has argued it is being punished for First Amendment-protected .

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.