Diyar Güldoğan
06 June 2025•Update: 06 June 2025
WASHINGTON
Harvard University filed a legal challenge Thursday over President Donald Trump's ban on US entry for incoming international students.
The filing comes a day after Trump signed a proclamation to restrict foreign student visas at the Ivy League school.
According to the proclamation, new Harvard students cannot come into the US as nonimmigrants under F, M or J visas. It also directs Secretary of State Marco Rubio to "consider revoking" existing F, M or J visas for current Harvard students "who meet the Proclamation’s criteria."
The university’s amended complaint, filed in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, described the harm caused by the proclamation as "immediate and irreparable."
"The Proclamation denies thousands of Harvard’s students the right to come to this country to pursue their education and follow their dreams, and it denies Harvard the right to teach them. Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard," the school said in the filing, according to media reports.
Harvard accused Trump of breaking federal law by not substantiating his national security claims.
"The Proclamation does not deem the entry of an alien or class of aliens to be detrimental to the interests of the United States, because noncitizens who are impacted by the Proclamation can enter the United States — just so long as they go somewhere other than Harvard," the school said, according to reports.
Trump said Thursday that he believes talks with Harvard University are moving in the right direction and expects the school to soon provide a list of its foreign students.
"We want to have foreign students come, very honored by it, but we want to see their list.
"Harvard didn't want to give us the list. They're going to be giving us the list. Now, I think they're starting to behave, actually, if you want to know the truth," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Last week, Trump said Harvard should cap foreign student enrollment to about 15% and demanded that the school show its lists of foreign students.
The Trump administration has threatened to freeze federal funding for universities including Harvard, citing campus protests in support of Palestine and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
The administration has pulled $3 billion in funding and threatened to remove Harvard's tax-exempt status.
