The Trump administration on Thursday backed away from plans to immediately revoke Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students and would instead give it 30 days to contest those plans through a lengthier administrative process.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent Harvard a notice of intent on Wednesday to withdraw the school’s certification under a federal program to enroll non-U.S. students.
The Justice Department filed the notice in court ahead of a hearing before the U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston over whether to extend a temporary order blocking President Donald Trump’s administration from revoking the Ivy League school’s right to host international students.
Citing the potential for Harvard and its students to be harmed if the administration reverted to its earlier plans, Burroughs at that hearing said she planned to issue a broad preliminary injunction preserving the status quo while the newly announced administrative process plays out. Harvard had argued that the revocation violated its free speech and due process rights under the U.S. Constitution.
In addition, Harvard contended that the revocation failed to comply with DHS regulations. The regulations required providing at least 30 days to challenge the agency’s allegations and giving Harvard an opportunity to pursue an administrative appeal. Harvard has said losing that right would affect about one quarter of its student body and devastate the school. It has denied Trump administration charges of alleged bias against conservatives, fostering antisemitism on campus and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.
The Homeland Security Department said it sent Harvard the notice after school officials indicated an intent to comply with requirements of the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which allows Harvard to enroll non-U.S. students.
“We continue to reject Harvard’s repeated pattern of endangering its students and spreading American hate which must change its ways to be eligible to receive generous benefits from the American people,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.
The revocation announced on May 22 was an escalation of the Trump administration’s attack on Harvard. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university’s lawyers argued the agency’s action was part of an unprecedented and retaliatory attack on academic freedom at Harvard, which is pursuing a separate lawsuit challenging the administration’s decision to terminate nearly $3 billion in federal research funding.
Harvard argues the Trump administration is retaliating against it for refusing to accede to its demands to control the school’s governance, curriculum and the ideology of its faculty and students.
The case before Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, was filed after Noem revoked the school’s certification to enroll non-U.S. students. In announcing the decision, Noem, without providing evidence, accused the university of “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.”
In a letter that day, she accused the school of refusing to comply with wide-ranging requests for information on its student visa holders, including about any activity they engaged in that was illegal or violent or that would subject them to discipline. Harvard said the decision was devastating for the school and its student body.
The university, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest, enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, about 27% of its total enrollment. The department’s move would prevent Harvard from enrolling new international students and require existing ones to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that Harvard University should have a 15% cap on the number of non-U.S. students it admits.
