法官阻止特朗普禁止哈佛国际学生入学的举措

【中美创新时报2025年5月23日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）在特朗普政府表示将禁止现有和未来的国际学生就读哈佛大学后不到 24 小时，哈佛大学就提起诉讼并请求颁发限制令。《纽约时报》记者斯蒂芬妮·索尔对此作了下述报道。

周五，哈佛大学起诉特朗普政府，而就在不到 24 小时前，美国国土安全部刚刚表示将禁止国际学生就读美国历史最悠久、最负盛名的大学之一哈佛大学。

周五上午晚些时候，应该大学的要求，波士顿的一名联邦法官迅速采取行动阻止联邦政府命令的执行。

法官艾莉森·D·巴勒斯（Allison D. Burroughs）针对该联邦法令发布了临时限制令，他同意哈佛大学已经证明该法令的实施将对该大学造成“直接且不可挽回的损害”。

校方的​​行动以及哈佛的回应，标志着校方与哈佛之间斗争的急剧升级。哈佛大学强硬且几乎立即的回应，也证明阻止国际学生进入哈佛——哈佛吸引了一些世界顶尖学者——将动摇哈佛的根基。

哈佛大学校长艾伦·M·加伯博士在周五上午致哈佛社区的一封信中写道：“我们谴责这种非法和无理的行为”，并补充说，这“危及哈佛大学数千名学生和学者的未来，并对全国各高校无数来到美国接受教育、实现梦想的人们起到了警示作用”。

该诉讼指责特朗普政府对哈佛大学发起“报复行动”，此前，哈佛大学于周四宣布撤销其学生和交流访问者项目认证，暂停了该校招收国际学生的能力。

这是该大学几周内第二次起诉联邦政府。

在新的诉讼中，哈佛大学指责特朗普政府“明显报复哈佛大学行使其第一修正案赋予的权利，控制哈佛大学的治理、课程以及教职员工和学生的‘意识形态’”。

诉讼称：“政府大笔一挥，就试图抹去哈佛四分之一的学生，这些国际学生为哈佛及其使命做出了重大贡献。没有国际学生，哈佛就不是哈佛。”

该校管理层表示，哈佛大学尚未遵守 4 月 16 日发出的一份要求清单，其中包含五年前的抗议活动记录，包括不当行为的录像带和涉及国际学生的纪律处分记录。

哈佛大学的诉讼还称，该校一直在努力遵守 4 月 16 日的要求，并附上了一封指责该校未能谴责反犹太主义的信。

诉讼称，尽管这些要求的“性质和范围前所未有”，要求哈佛大学在 10 个工作日内提供每位学生签证持有人（涉及哈佛大学 13 个学院的约 7,000 名学生）的信息，但哈佛大学已于 4 月 30 日提交了所需信息，并且还遵守了后续要求。

诉讼称：“然而，5月22日，国土安全部认定哈佛大学的回应‘不足’，既没有解释原因，也没有列举哈佛大学未能遵守的任何规定。”诉讼还提到特朗普总统在其社交媒体网站“真相社交”（Truth Social）上的帖子，作为他对哈佛大学怀恨在心的证据。

白宫发言人阿比盖尔·杰克逊发表声明回应了这起诉讼。

声明中写道：“如果哈佛大学真心实意地致力于消除校园内反美、反犹太、支持恐怖主义的煽动者的祸害，他们就不会陷入如今的境地。哈佛大学应该把时间和资源投入到打造安全的校园环境上，而不是发起那些毫无意义的诉讼。”

国土安全部助理部长特里西娅·麦克劳克林发表声明称，该诉讼“旨在削弱总统的宪法赋予的权力”，并补充说，大学招收外国学生是一种特权，而不是权利。

声明称：“特朗普政府致力于恢复我们学生签证制度的常识；无论是这场诉讼还是其他任何诉讼，都无法改变这一点。法律、事实和常识都站在我们这边。”

特朗普政府解释说，其对哈佛大学和其他顶尖私立大学的攻击是为了打击反犹太主义，并对抗校园里的自由主义偏见。在竞选期间，特朗普曾用“马克思主义狂热分子”来指代常春藤盟校。

特朗普就职后，政府几乎动用了联邦政府所能掌握的一切手段，迫使学校，尤其是哈佛大学，屈服于其意志。目前至少有八项针对哈佛的调查，涉及至少六个联邦机构。

另外，特朗普政府曾试图利用联邦政府的国际学生系统将外国公民驱逐出境。移民官员不仅针对了少数支持巴勒斯坦的学生活动人士，还终止了数百名学生的合法身份，这在全国高校的国际学生中引发了普遍的焦虑。（大多数学生的身份已经恢复，但一些备受瞩目的案件正在法庭审理中。）

在哈佛大学，一场冲突已持续数周，特朗普政府的“打击反犹太主义联合工作组”批评该校存在反以色列偏见。4月11日，该工作组发出一封信，要求哈佛大学遵守一系列要求，包括聘请外部监督员监督教授和学生的意识形态，以及禁止“敌视美国价值观”的国际学生入学。

4 月 15 日，加伯博士对哈佛大学提起了第一起诉讼，诉讼辩论将于 7 月进行。

尽管双方都表示愿意妥协，但来自各个联邦机构的针对哈佛大学的攻击仍在继续，其中哈佛大学政府冻结了近 30 亿美元的合同和研究资金。

与此同时，国会正在审议的一项增加大学捐赠税的提案可能会使哈佛大学每年损失约 8.5 亿美元。

特朗普政府周四的举动令学术界普遍感到震惊。麻省理工学院院长萨莉·科恩布鲁斯在一份声明中称，这是一个“严峻时刻”。

“我怀着深深的难以置信写信给您，”她在周四晚些时候的一封社区邮件中写道。“联邦政府今天禁止哈佛大学招收国际学生的举动，对美国的卓越、开放和创新精神造成了毁灭性的打击。”

哈佛大学招收了约 6,800 名国际学生，约占其学生总数的 27%，而该行政命令最终可能会影响现有学生（他们需要寻找其他学校就读）和秋季前往美国的新入学哈佛学生。

哈佛大学校长周四宣布的这一决定可能会彻底颠覆学生们的生活，也可能对哈佛大学造成重大的经济打击。由于哈佛大学的许多国际学生就读于学费高昂的研究生课程，外国学生带来的学费每年可能为哈佛大学带来数亿美元的收入。

周四接受采访时，一位不愿透露姓名的来自乌克兰的哈佛学生表示，她担心失去签证，不仅因为这会影响她的学业，还因为在与俄罗斯的战争期间回国是不可能的。她正在考虑去欧洲其他地方的亲戚家生活。

题图：哈佛校园里，一排树后面，砖砌建筑的尖塔拔地而起。特朗普政府对哈佛大学展开了多次调查，并试图冻结其联邦资金。图源…索菲·帕克为《纽约时报》撰稿

附原英文报道：

Judge Blocks Trump Effort to Bar International Students at Harvard

Harvard sued and asked for a restraining order less than 24 hours after the Trump administration had said it would block current and future international students from attending the university.

A steeple juts up from brick buildings on Harvard’s campus behind a row of trees.

The Trump administration has targeted Harvard University with multiple investigations and attempts to freeze its federal funding. Credit…Sophie Park for The New York Times

Stephanie Saul

By Stephanie Saul

May 23, 2025

Harvard University sued the Trump administration on Friday, less than 24 hours after the Department of Homeland Security said it would block international students from attending the nation’s oldest university and one of its most prestigious.

Later Friday morning, at the university’s request, a federal judge in Boston moved swiftly to block implementation of the federal government’s order.

The judge, Allison D. Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order against the federal edict, agreeing that Harvard had shown that its implementation would cause “immediate and irreparable injury” to the university.

The administration action, and Harvard’s response, signified a dramatic escalation of the battle between the administration and Harvard. And the university’s forceful and almost immediate response served as evidence that stopping the flow of international students to Harvard, which draws some of the world’s top scholars, would destabilize Harvard’s very existence.

In a letter to the Harvard community delivered Friday morning, Dr. Alan M. Garber, Harvard’s president, wrote, “We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action,” adding that it “imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams.”

The lawsuit, which accused the Trump administration of a “campaign of retribution” against the university followed an announcement on Thursday that Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification had been revoked, halting the university’s ability to enroll international students.

The lawsuit was the second time in a matter of weeks the university had sued the federal government.

In the new lawsuit, the university accused the Trump administration of exerting “clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students.”

“With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the university and its mission,” the lawsuit said. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”

The administration said Harvard had not complied with a list of demands sent on April 16 that contained records of protest activity dating back five years, including videotapes of misconduct and records of disciplinary actions involving international students.

Harvard’s lawsuit also said that the university had been working to comply with the April 16 request, along with a letter attacking the university for failure to condemn antisemitism.

Despite the “unprecedented nature and scope” of the demands, calling for information on each student visa holder, about 7,000 students across Harvard’s 13 schools, within 10 business days, Harvard had submitted the required information on April 30, the lawsuit said, and also complied with a follow-up request.

“Yet on May 22, D.H.S. deemed Harvard’s response ‘insufficient,’ without explaining why or citing any regulation with which Harvard failed to comply,” the lawsuit said. It references President Trump’s posts on Truth Social, his social media site, as evidence of his vendetta against Harvard.

A White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson, responded to the lawsuit with a statement.

“If only Harvard cared this much about ending the scourge of anti-American, antisemitic, pro-terrorist agitators on their campus they wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with. Harvard should spend their time and resources on creating a safe campus environment instead of filing frivolous lawsuits,” the statement said.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant homeland security secretary, issued a statement saying that the lawsuit “seeks to kneecap the president’s constitutionally vested powers,” adding that it is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students.

“The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system; no lawsuit, this or any other, is going to change that. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side,” the statement said.

The Trump administration has explained its attacks on Harvard and other top private universities as an effort to combat antisemitism and confront liberal biases on campus. During his campaign, Mr. Trump invoked the term “Marxist maniacs” to refer to the Ivy League.

After he was inaugurated, Mr. Trump’s administration has sought to use nearly every lever the federal government has at its disposal to force schools, Harvard especially, to bend to its will. There are now at least eight investigations into Harvard spanning at least six federal agencies.

Separately, the Trump administration had sought to use the federal government’s international student system as a way to remove foreign nationals from the country. Immigration officials targeted a handful of pro-Palestinian student activists, but also ended the legal status of hundreds of students, creating a general anxiety among international students at colleges and universities nationwide. (Most of those students have had their status restored, but a few high-profile cases are being argued in the courts.)

At Harvard, a conflict had been building for weeks, as the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism criticized the university for anti-Israel bias. On April 11, the task force sent a letter demanding that Harvard comply with a list of demands that ranged from hiring an outside monitor to police the ideology of professors and students to barring international students “hostile to American values.”

Dr. Garber responded on April 15 with Harvard’s first lawsuit, in which arguments are set for July.

And despite statements from both sides indicating a willingness to compromise, the attacks on Harvard have continued, emanating from a variety of federal agencies, with the administration freezing nearly $3 billion in contracts and research funding.

At the same time, a proposal making its way through Congress that would increase taxes on university endowments could cost Harvard an estimated $850 million a year.

The wider academic community was shocked at Thursday’s move by the Trump Administration. In a statement, Sally Kornbluth, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, called it a “grave moment.”

“I write to you in profound disbelief,” she wrote in a community email late Thursday. “The action the federal government took today to bar Harvard from having international students is devastating for American excellence, openness, and ingenuity.”

Harvard enrolls about 6,800 international students, or about 27 percent of its student body, and the administration edict could ultimately affect both existing students, who would need to find other schools to attend, and newly admitted Harvard students headed for the United States in the fall.

The administration’s announcement on Thursday potentially upends students’ lives, and would also be a major financial blow to Harvard. With many of Harvard’s international students enrolled in high-cost graduate programs, the tuition generated by foreign students likely generates several hundred million a year for the university.

In an interview on Thursday, a Harvard student from Ukraine, who asked not to be identified, said she feared losing her visa not only because it will disrupt her education but because returning home, amid the war with Russia, is not an option. She is considering going to live with relatives elsewhere in Europe.