Judge blocks push to bar Harvard foreign students
Judge Allison Burroughs sided with Harvard against the Trump administration's attempt to block the admittance of international students
What happened
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs Thursday extended her temporary block of the Trump administration's efforts to bar foreign students from Harvard University and said she would soon issue a preliminary injunction, allowing America's oldest university to enroll foreign students as the litigation proceeds in court.
Who said what
Burroughs said during Thursday's hearing she was concerned that the government was violating her previous order by trying to block students from enrolling. "I want to maintain the status quo," she said. "People are terrified." The stay was a "temporary victory" for Harvard in the Trump administration's "multipronged attack against the school," The New York Times said.
Harvard was the first university to "reject" Trump's sweeping demands for change and control, arguing they "threatened the autonomy that has long made U.S. higher education a magnet for the world's top scholars," The Associated Press said. The million-plus foreign students at U.S. universities also provide a "crucial financial lifeline" for the schools, NPR said. About 5 miles away from Burroughs' Boston courtroom, Reuters said, Harvard President Alan Garber "received a standing ovation" at the university's commencement when he welcomed graduating students from "down the street, across the country" and "around the world — just as it should be."
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What next?
As Burroughs asked both sides to propose language for her injunction, administration lawyers "hinted that the Trump administration was pursuing other ways to bar international students from enrolling at the Ivy League university," the Times said.
