Some international students at Harvard are worried about attending graduation, school tells court
The Trump administration has thrown the lives of the university’s 7,000 international students into distress and disarray, with some afraid of attending commencement this week, Harvard’s director of immigration services spelled out in a new court filing ahead of a major federal court hearing Thursday in Boston.
Some U.S. students are even reconsidering enrolling this fall because of the Trump administration’s actions, Maureen Martin wrote in her sworn statement filed Wednesday.
Harvard’s faculty and administration are being “inundated with questions” from concerned students, and international students are so distressed their mental health has been affected, she wrote.
“Some are afraid to attend their own graduation ceremonies this week out of fear that some immigration-related action will be taken against them,” Martin wrote. “Some have cancelled upcoming international travel plans to conduct academic research or see their families in light of the risk that they might not be admitted back into the United States.”
Martin’s declaration in court highlights the competitive disadvantage the Trump administration’s recent actions against the university have caused. A judge has temporarily blocked the State Department and Department of Homeland Security from rescinding Harvard’s ability to host international students.
Video below: Dozens march on Boston Common in protest of Trump, ICE actions in Massachusetts
Yet some of the damage is already done, the school says.
International students set to come to Harvard for future semesters are reconsidering, including at least one medical school student and one law student, Martin added, as are at least three U.S. students who want to study where international students also can be. Others have had trouble getting student visas to the U.S. at embassies abroad in recent days.
Judge Allison Burroughs at the federal court in Boston is set to hear arguments and consider evidence on Thursday on whether Harvard’s international students should be indefinitely protected following the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke the university’s student visa program.
The hearing is the first major day in court in the clash between Harvard and the Trump White House. The university is also fighting several other federal agency actions to block billions of dollars in funding, especially for health care research, arguing that President Donald Trump is targeting Harvard in a pattern of retaliation as part of a broader culture war.
The Trump administration says it is combating antisemitism at Harvard and unhappy with the elite university’s “academic rigor,” yet Harvard says the administration’s demands are putting in jeopardy a quarter of the student body, who come from more than 140 foreign countries to study in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The university also says the Trump administration is attempting to bend to Trump’s conservative worldview whom Harvard admits, whom it hires as faculty, what it researches in scientific endeavors and what it teaches – encroaching on the university’s free speech and campus autonomy.
Administration officials and Trump have repeatedly said Harvard is being used as an example, and other universities may face harsh actions from the administration.
The state of Massachusetts also told the court on Wednesday it was standing behind Harvard’s arguments.
