Harvard University has filed a lawsuit against the Donald Trump administration for its decision to bar the Ivy League university from accepting international students, particularly those from Nigeria.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Boston, Harvard said the government’s action violates the First Amendment and will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.”
“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 in its suit.
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It comes a day after officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said they would be revoking Harvard’s access to student visa programmes.
The Trump administration says Harvard has not done enough to fight antisemitism and change its hiring and admissions practices – allegations that the university has strongly denied.
Approximately 6,800 foreign students attend Harvard, accounting for almost 27% of the university’s enrollment this year at its Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus. They are from more than 100 nations and the majority are graduate students.
In order to prevent the DHS from rescinding Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which is the means by which it is permitted to accept international students, the institution is requesting a court injunction.
“We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in a letter.
“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,” he wrote.
Harvard and other prestigious institutions have been under fire from the Trump administration, which claims they discriminate against conservative opinions in addition to saying they have to do more to crack down on pro-Palestinian campaigners.
The Trump administration has forced concessions from other significant US colleges, such as Columbia University in New York, and opened investigations into dozens of universities nationwide.
Trump has threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, which is a common classification for US educational institutions, and the White House froze $2.2 billion (£1.7 billion) in government funds for the university in April.
An previous Harvard case that also asked the courts to halt the administration’s actions was sparked by the funding block.
