The revocation announced on May 22 was an escalation of the Trump administration’s attack on Harvard.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university’s lawyers argued the agency’s action was part of an “unprecedented and retaliatory attack on academic freedom at Harvard”, which is pursuing a separate lawsuit challenging the administration’s decision to terminate nearly US$3 billion in federal research funding.
Harvard argues the Trump administration is retaliating against it for refusing to accede to its demands to control the school’s governance, curriculum and the ideology of its faculty and students.
The case before Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, was filed after Noem revoked the school’s certification to enrol non-US students.
In announcing the decision, Noem, without providing evidence, accused the university of “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.”
In a letter that day, she accused the school of refusing to comply with wide-ranging requests for information on its student visa holders, including about any activity they engaged in that was illegal or violent or that would subject them to discipline.
Harvard said the decision was devastating for the school and its student body. The university, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest, enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, about 27 per cent of its total enrollment.
The department’s move would prevent Harvard from enrolling new international students and require existing ones to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that Harvard University should have a 15 per cent cap on the number of non-US students it admits.
