Judge temporarily halts Trump’s proclamation blocking Harvard students’ visas 

A federal judge late Thursday temporarily blocked President Trump’s proclamation that blocks visas for foreign students planning to attend Harvard University until after a hearing later this month. 

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs’s order came swiftly after Harvard rushed to court to ask the judge to immediately block Trump’s proclamation, which he signed a day earlier. 

Burroughs issued her order before the government responded, saying the school would otherwise “sustain immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties.” 

The judge, an appointee of former President Obama who serves in Boston, said she would hold a June 16 hearing on whether to block Trump’s proclamation indefinitely. 

Trump’s proclamation marked a shift in the administration’s expanding battle with the Ivy League School over its refusal to comply with a list of demands, which include changes to its admissions and hiring policies and a stronger stance against antisemitism. 

Harvard first sued the administration in April for freezing more than $2 billion in federal funding. 

It filed a second lawsuit last month after the Department of Homeland Security revoked its certification to admit foreign students. The development prompted the school to seek emergency relief, quickly convincing Burroughs to block the revocation as the case proceeds. 

Harvard amended the second lawsuit on Thursday after Trump signed the new proclamation, urging Burroughs to immediately block it and accusing the president of circumventing the earlier order.

“The Proclamation simply reflects the Administration’s effort to accomplish the very result that the Court sought to prevent. The Court should not stand for that,” the school’s legal team wrote in court filings. 

Trump’s proclamation cites a federal law authorizing the president to suspend entry of a group of noncitizens whose entry would be detrimental to national interests.    

“In my judgment, Harvard’s conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers,” the proclamation states. 

“Until such time as the university shares the information that the Federal Government requires to safeguard national security and the American public, it is in the national interest to deny foreign nationals access to Harvard under the auspices of educational exchange," it continues.

“This lawsuit seeks to kneecap the President’s constitutionally vested powers under Article II,” assistant DHS secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Hill about Harvard's lawsuit. “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.”