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In a setback to US President, Federal judge on Friday blocked Donald Trump administration’s decision to bar foreign student enrolment at Harvard University.The development came amid Harvard filing the lawsuit in US District Court in Massachusetts.The temporary restraining order stops the government from pulling Harvard’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which allows the school to host international students with visas to study in the US, reported AP.In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Boston, Harvard termed the government’s action a ‘blatant violation’ of the US Constitution and said that it will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.””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,” Harvard said.”Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the 389-year-old school added.Harvard, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has pushed back hard against Trump, having previously sued to restore some $3 billion in federal grants that had been frozen or canceled.Harvard enrols almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Most are graduate students and they come from more than 100 countries.The Trump administration decision has raised concerns over the legal status of thousands of students, including nearly 800 from India, currently enrolled at the varsity.on Thursday, the Trump administration ordered the Department of Homeland Security to terminate Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Programme (SEVP) certification.“This means Harvard can no longer enrol foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status,” the federal agency said.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a letter dated May 22 to Harvard University that “I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Programme certification is revoked.”
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