FILE PHOTO: People walk on the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., April 15, 2025.
Faith Ninivaggi | Reuters
Harvard University on Friday filed a lawsuit asking a judge to reverse the Trump administration’s ban on the private school enrolling international students for its purported tolerance of “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” on campus.
The suit came a day after the Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students under the F-1 visa program at the behest of Secretary Kristi Noem.
DHS said Harvard is barred from enrolling future international students, and that current foreign students enrolled at the school had to leave the school or risk losing their legal status in the United States.
The ban affects more than 7,000 current visa holders studying at Harvard, which has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration for months. President Donald Trump last month said that Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status.
“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,” the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts said.
“Harvard’s certification is essential for each of Harvard’s thousands of international students to lawfully remain in this country while they complete coursework, obtain degrees, and continue critical research,” the suit said.
The lawsuit called the revocation a “blatant violation of the First Amendment” and the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The school also said it was 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.”
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement, said that Harvard’s “lawsuit seeks to kneecap the President’s constitutionally vested powers under Article II” of the Constitution.
“It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,” McLaughlin said. “The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system; no lawsuit, this or any other, is going to change that. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.””
DHS on Thursday said it revoked Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification because the Ivy League school’s leadership “has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment.”
Harvard’s suit noted the Trump administration’s action came days before graduation.
“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the complaint says.
Harvard President Alan Garber, in a letter to the school community on Friday, wrote, “We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action” by the Trump administration.
“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,” Garber wrote.
“In fact, Harvard did respond to the Department’s requests as required by law.”
The suit says that Noem, in an April 16 letter to Harvard’s International Office, demanded information about each student visa holder at Harvard’s 13 schools within 10 business days, accusing Harvard of failing “to condemn anti-semitism.”
The suit says Harvard produced the requested information on April 30 and provided additional information on May 14.
“Yet, on May 22, 2025, DHS deemed Harvard’s responses ‘insufficient’ — without explaining why or citing any regulation with which Harvard failed to comply — and revoked Harvard’s SEVP certification ‘effective immediately,’ ” the complaint said.
The suit notes that in recent weeks and months, the Trump administration’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism has conditioned the continued issuance of “numerous federal benefits” to Harvard, including billions of dollars on grants and other funding, “on accepting sweeping changes to Harvard’s governance, admissions, hiring, and academic programs.”
“When, on April 14, 2025, Harvard refused to accede to these demands, the government’s retribution was swift,” the suit says.
“Hours later, the government froze more than $2.2 billion in federal funding critical to the support of ongoing cutting-edge research at Harvard.”
In his letter Friday, Harvard President Garber addressed international students and scholars affected by the enrollment ban.
“Know that you are vital members of our community,” Garber wrote. “You are our classmates and friends, our colleagues and mentors, our partners in the work of this great institution.”
“We will support you as we do our utmost to ensure that Harvard remains open to the world.”
