Harvard beats Trump: judge blocks ban on foreign students

Preliminary injunction by Judge Burroughs against visa restrictions: university accuses president of retaliation for pro-Gaza protests

Federal Judge Allison Burroughs has granted Harvard University’s request, temporarily blocking President Trump’s ban on foreign students admitted to the university entering the United States. The preliminary injunction, issued in Boston, responds to an urgent appeal filed by the university, which claimed ‘immediate and irreparable harm’ from the presidential order.

According to Harvard, the measure represents political retaliation, as it is motivated by the university’s position in favour of freedom of expression during the recent pro-Gaza protests. The university has spoken openly of a ‘personal vendetta’ by President Trump, who has repeatedly accused the college of failing to effectively combat incidents of anti-Semitism on campus.

The president justified the visa ban on alleged national security grounds, but the standoff with American universities — particularly the most prestigious ones — has been going on for months. The Trump administration has already frozen billions in federal funding for Harvard in an attempt to exert pressure on the university’s internal policies.

Meanwhile, worrying developments are emerging from Michigan: some students at the University of Michigan have reported the use of private investigators to monitor pro-Palestinian groups active on campus. The agents, hired through the City Shield agency in Detroit, allegedly followed, recorded and secretly listened to conversations between students, collecting material that was then used for legal proceedings.

Financial records show that the university paid over $800,000 between June 2023 and September 2024 to City Shield’s parent company, Ameri-Shield. The case now risks opening a new front on the issue of freedom of expression on American campuses, in an increasingly tense national climate of student dissent, repression and government control.

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