A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a proclamation by President Donald Trump that banned incoming foreign students from entering the U.S. to attend Harvard University.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a proclamation by President Donald Trump that banned incoming foreign students from entering the U.S. to attend Harvard University.

The proclamation, issued on Wednesday, marked the latest attempt by Trump’s administration to cut off the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college from a quarter of its student body, which accounts for much of Harvard’s research and scholarship.

Hours earlier, Harvard had filed a legal challenge asking for the federal judge to block Trump’s order, calling it illegal retaliation for Harvard’s rejection of White House demands. In an amended lawsuit filed Thursday, Harvard said the president was attempting an end-run around a previous court order.

U.S. President Donald Trump movied to block nearly all foreign students from entering the country to attend Harvard University, his latest attempt to choke the Ivy League school from an international pipeline that accounts for a quarter of the student body. In an executive order signed Wednesday (June 5, 2025), Mr. Trump declared that it would jeopardise national security to allow Harvard to continue hosting foreign students on its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“I have determined that the entry of the class of foreign nationals described above is detrimental to the interests of the United States because, in my judgment, Harvard’s conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers,” Mr. Trump wrote in the order.