Harvard sues Trump administration for blocking enrollment of foreign students

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) -Harvard University sued the Trump administration on Friday over its decision to revoke the Ivy League school's ability to enroll foreign students, ratcheting up White House efforts to conform practices in academia to President Donald Trump's policies.

In a complaint filed in Boston federal court, Harvard called the revocation a "blatant violation" of the U.S. Constitution and other federal laws, and had an "immediate and devastating effect" on the university and more than 7,000 visa holders.

The termination of Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, effective with the 2025-2026 academic year, was announced by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and affects about one-quarter of Harvard's students.

Noem said terminating the certification was justified because of Harvard's "fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party."

The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a letter to the Harvard community, the school's president Alan Garber condemned the administration's actions.

"The revocation continues a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government's illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body," Garber wrote.

Harvard enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, equal to 27% of total enrollment.

In its complaint, Harvard said the revocation would force it to retract admissions for thousands of people, and has thrown "countless" academic programs, clinics, courses and research laboratories into disarray, just a few days before graduation.

"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.

"Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard," the 389-year-old school added.

The revocation follows Noem's demand on April 16 for a large trove of information from Harvard about student visa holders.

In a letter to Harvard, which was attached to the complaint, Noem said the information was needed because the university had "created a hostile learning environment for Jewish students due to Harvard's failure to condemn antisemitism."

On Thursday, Noem said Harvard could restore its certification by turning over within 72 hours a raft of records about international students, including video or audio of their protest activity in the past five years.

In his letter on Friday, Garber said Harvard responded to Homeland Security Department requests as required by law.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in Chicago and Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Toby Chopra and Daniel Wallis)