Harvard and the Trump administration return to court over international students
Lawyers from Harvard University and the Trump administration will be back in federal court in Boston on Monday over Harvard’s ability to enroll international students.
On June 4, President Trump issued a proclamation preventing Harvard’s international students from entering the country, citing national security concerns.
Rather than disqualifying Harvard students from receiving visas, as other federal agencies have attempted to do, the presidential order marked the first time Trump has stepped in directly, using his executive powers to limit Harvard. His executive order says the university has failed to account for “known illegal activity” by students there.
“Admission into the United States to attend, conduct research, or teach at our Nation’s institutions of higher education is a privilege granted by our Government, not a guarantee,” the proclamation states.
The Trump administration has also argued that Harvard violated students’ civil rights, including failing to protect Jewish students, and that banning the school from enrolling international students is warranted.
The Ivy League school amended an existing lawsuit against the administration to ask a judge to block the order, calling the president’s actions “another illegal retaliatory step,” and claiming the government is in violation of the school’s First Amendment rights.
U.S. District Judge Alison D. Burroughs, an Obama appointee, issued a temporary block and on Monday will decide whether to extend it until Harvard’s lawsuit goes to trial.
Harvard enrolls about 7,000 international students, more than a quarter of the student body. While the legal battle plays out, Harvard has maintained that it will continue enrolling international students, based on the previous temporary order of the court.
“The court hearing is a very big deal for international students,” says Alfred Williamson, who is from Wales in the United Kingdom, and just finished his first year at Harvard. “The part that is most frustrating and scary is that there’s nothing we can do to influence the outcome. We just have to sit here and wait and cross our fingers.”
The battle over international students is one of several fronts in a running campaign by the administration, which has also cancelled grants and threatened Harvard’s tax-exempt status.
“The fight seems far from over,” says Williamson, who faces uncertainty over what his sophomore year will look like and whether he’ll be able to attend Harvard. “As international students we can’t really see the end of it.”
Ilia Malinin’s Olympic backflip made history. But he’s not the first to do it
U.S. figure skating phenom Ilia Malinin did a backflip in his Olympic debut, and another the next day. The controversial move was banned from competition for decades until 2024.
‘Dizzy’ author recounts a decade of being marooned by chronic illness
Rachel Weaver worked for the Forest Service in Alaska where she scaled towering trees to study nature. But in 2006, she woke up and felt like she was being spun in a hurricane. Her memoir is Dizzy.
Bad Bunny makes Puerto Rico the home team in a vivid Super Bowl halftime show
The star filled his set with hits and familiar images from home, but also expanded his lens to make an argument about the place of Puerto Rico within a larger American context.
Japan’s Takaichi to pursue conservative agenda after election landslide
Japan's first female Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, brought the ruling Liberal Democratic Party its biggest-ever electoral victory, fueling her ambitions to pursue to a political agenda which she says could "split public opinion."
Olympic COVID restrictions are gone, but some athletes are still self-quarantining
For most people, the pandemic days of masking are behind them. In certain corners of the Winter Olympics, though, things still look a lot like they did in COVID times. Some athletes are taking extreme measures to stay healthy.
Mikaela Shiffrin has battled grief, PTSD and freak injury. Now come the Olympic Games
Shiffrin became a celebrity at 18 years old after becoming the youngest-ever skier to win Olympic slalom gold. Since then, she has faced grief, PTSD and freak injury — yet she is ready to bounce back.
