Harvard University filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it was revoking Harvard’s ability to host foreign students.
In an announcement of the legal filing, Harvard President Alan Garber told the Harvard community that the action from the DHS is “unlawful and unwarranted” and the university is seeking a temporary restraining order. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that Harvard’s “toxic campus climate” due to allegedly allowing antisemitism to persist and “inaccurate” foreign funding disclosures lost it the right to host any international students.
“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 said in his announcement. “We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action. It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams.”
Garber denies that the university has not been complying with the federal government’s requests. The legal complaint alleges that the action from the DHS, as well as the administration’s previous actions against the Ivy League school are retaliatory and that the government is unlawfully trying to exercise control over the university.
“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the university wrote in an X post.
“This lawsuit seeks to kneecap the President’s constitutionally vested powers under Article II,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at DHS, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “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. 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.”
Harvard previously rejected the Trump administration’s demands to combat antisemitism, saying it would not “relinquish” its academic freedom and free speech rights and claiming it is managing the issues on its own. The administration immediately hit back with billions in federal funding cuts.
International students make up more than a quarter of Harvard’s student body, with 6,793 enrolled at the university in the 2024-2025 school year. Along with losing the ability to admit new international students, all currently enrolled students “must transfer or lose their legal status,” the Trump administration’s DHS said.
Harvard first found itself in the federal government’s crosshairs after a September 2024 congressional investigation revealed “Harvard failed” to enforce meaningful punishment on nearly 70 students who were involved in a multi-day pro-Hamas encampment during the previous spring semester. Demonstrators at the school also disrupted classes and occupied a campus building.
Harvard is also accused of failing to report foreign donations it has accepted as required by law. The Ivy League school has reportedly brought in $1.1 billion from foreign sources since 2017 alone, including over $100 million from China and about $1.6 million from “Palestinian territories.”
The Department of Education on April 18 launched a records request into Harvard after finding “the university’s foreign reports revealed incomplete and inaccurate disclosures.”
Harvard did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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