Harvard University has amended one of its lawsuits against the federal government after President Donald Trump issued a proclamation this week declaring the school’s foreign students would not be allowed into the country.
In a major escalation on Wednesday of his war against the world’s weathiest universityin addition to the proclamation, Trump asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to consider revoking the visas of Harvard students already in the country.
The proclamation, titled “Enhancing National Security By Addressing Risks at Harvard University,” invoked national security powers to bar Harvard’s international students from entering the U.S.
“Admission into the United States to attend, conduct research, or teach at our Nation’s institutions of higher education is a privilege granted by our Government, not a guarantee,” Trump wrote in his proclamation on Wednesday. “That privilege is necessarily tied to the host institution’s compliance and commitment to following Federal law. Harvard University has failed in this respect, among many others.”
A Harvard spokesperson told The New York Times the latest move was “illegal,” adding that the university would “continue to protect its international students.”
On Thursday, Harvard amended its complaint in an existing lawsuit against the federal government filed after the Trump administration revoked its key certification to host foreign students. A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in May, staving off this particular move from Trump.
In its amended complaint, asking a judge to deem the proclamation illegal, Harvard wrote that “with the stroke of a pen, the DHS Secretary and the president have sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body — international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission and the country.”
- Read more: Funding cuts, lawsuits, foreign students: The latest on Trump’s war with Harvard University
The university said Trump’s latest proclamation “has equally harmful and irreparable consequences,” and that the president is essentially trying to circumvent the prior preliminary injunction because of a “government vendetta against Harvard.”
“What the DHS secretary has purported to take away on the back end by revoking Harvard’s certifications to host foreign students, the president purports to take away on the front end by preventing the students and scholars invited to Harvard from gaining entry into the country in the first place,” the school wrote. “The proclamation is a patent effort to end-run this court’s order.”
In his Wednesday proclamation, Trump asserted Harvard University, which he has gone after in the name of antisemitism issues on campus, “is no longer a trustworthy steward of international student and exchange visitor programs.”
