Harvard University has sued the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and the Department of Justice in response to the Trump administration’s attempt to block the Ivy League school from enrolling international students.
“This revocation is a blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act. It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” the university wrote in a lawsuit filed Friday morning.
The university requested that the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts declare the Trump administration’s actions unconstitutional and unlawful, that the court enjoin the administration from enforcing the expulsion of international students, and compensate the university for fees and legal bills related to the litigation. Hours after filing the suit, the court granted a temporary restraining order blocking the administration from enforcing the directive.
The Trump administration’s move to block Harvard from accepting foreign applicants on student visas is the latest escalation in an ongoing feud between MAGA Republicans and America’s most prestigious educational institutions.
“I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a letter to the university on Thursday. “It is a privilege to enroll foreign students, and it is also a privilege to employ aliens on campus […] Harvard is prohibited from having any aliens on F- or J- nonimmigrant status for the 2025-2026 academic school year. This decertification also means that existing aliens on F- or J- nonimmigrant status must transfer to another university in order to maintain their nonimmigrant status.”
In an open letter to students, faculty, and staff, Harvard President Alan M. Garber wrote that Noem’s letter “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.”
Harvard and the Trump administration have been locked in a back and forth for months now. The Trump administration has been attacking Harvard for allowing pro-Palestinian activism on campus, and last month the Department of Education demanded that the school allow government oversight over its hiring practices, curriculum, and admissions practices in order to align them with the political priorities of the Trump government. The university refused. Earlier this month, the Department of Education froze all federal grant funding to the university over their refusal to bend to their demands.
Friday’s lawsuit states that “there is no lawful justification for the government’s unprecedented revocation of Harvard’s [Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP)] certification, and the government has not offered any.”
The university has requested that the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts declare the Trump administration’s actions unconstitutional and unlawful, that the court enjoin the administration from enforcing the expulsion of international students, and compensate the university for fees and legal bills related to the litigation.
On Thursday, Noem was asked on Fox News about the prospect of a lawsuit challenging the administration’s push to revoke student visas. “ring it,” she said. “I am on the side of America and they need to be too.”
