Harvard University is challenging the Trump administration’s decision to bar the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students, calling it unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House’s political demands.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Boston, Harvard said the government’s action violates the First Amendment and will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.”
“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,” Harvard said in its suit. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”
The school said it plans to file for a temporary restraining order to block the Department of Homeland Security from carrying out the move.
The move has thrown campus into disarray days before graduation, Harvard said in the suit. International students who run labs, teach courses, assist professors and participate in Harvard sports are now left deciding whether to transfer or risk losing legal status to stay in the country, according to the filing.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, says the Trump administration will have a hard time explaining the move in court. Tobias says Harvard can make an argument that the move violates the First Amendment, so the administration will need to present solid evidence to justify its action.
“It looks pretty obvious that the administration has just targeted the university,” he said. “This eviscerates the international aspect of what Harvard does so well: bringing in the best people from the world.”
Gerardo Blanco, who directs the center for international higher education at Boston College, says this casts a shadow across higher education.
“The top universities in the United States that have been huge magnets for international students — now, they all are under this cloud of uncertainty that their ability to enroll international students could be revoked just by a signature,” he said.
Blanco warned attacks on Harvard and other selective schools could have long-term effects for U.S. higher education for decades to come.
The impact is heaviest at graduate schools such as the Harvard Kennedy School, where almost half the student body comes from abroad, and Harvard Business School, which is about one-third international.
Along with its impact on current students, the move blocks thousands of students who were planning to come for summer and fall classes.
Harvard said it immediately puts the school at a disadvantage as it competes for the world’s top students. Even if it regains the ability to host students, “future applicants may shy away from applying out of fear of further reprisals from the government,” the suit said.
If the government’s action stands, Harvard said, the university would be unable to offer admission to new international students for at least the next two academic years. Schools that have that certification withdrawn by the federal government are ineligible to reapply until one year afterward, Harvard said.
Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Most are graduate students and they come from more than 100 countries.
The department announced the action Thursday, accusing Harvard of creating an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus. It also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, contending the school had hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as 2024.
Harvard President Alan Garber earlier this month said the university has made changes to its governance over the past year and a half, including a broad strategy to combat antisemitism, He said Harvard would not budge on its “its core, legally-protected principles” over fears of retaliation. Harvard has said it will respond at a later time to allegations first raised by House Republicans about coordination with the Chinese Communist Party.
The threat to Harvard’s international enrollment stems from an April 16 request from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who demanded that Harvard provide information about foreign students that might implicate them in violence or protests that could lead to their deportation.
Noem said Harvard can regain its ability to host foreign students if it produces a trove of records on foreign students within 72 hours. Her updated request demands all records, including audio or video footage, of foreign students participating in protests or dangerous activity on campus.
The suit is separate from the university’s earlier one challenging more than $2 billion in federal cuts imposed by the Republican administration.
GBH’s Kirk Carapezza contributed reporting.
