US court blocks Donald Trump’s order suspending visas for foreign students at Harvard

A United States court on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s orders from a day earlier to suspend visas for foreign students seeking to study or participate in exchange programmes at Harvard University, reported Reuters.

Amid the university’s escalating dispute with the Trump administration, US District Court Judge Allison D Burroughs granted a temporary restraining order that enjoins anyone from “implementing, instituting, maintaining, enforcing, or giving force or effect to the presidential proclamation” signed on Wednesday, according to NBC News.

Through the proclamation, Trump had suspended the entry of new international students at Harvard on F, M, or J visas, the White House stated. These visas allow international students to study or participate in exchange programmes in the US.

The suspension would have initially been in place for six months but could be extended, Reuters reported.

Trump also directed the secretary of state “to consider revoking” such visas for current Harvard students who meet the proclamation’s “criteria”, according to the statement. The White House added that the university had demonstrated “a history of concerning foreign ties and radicalism”.

Describing the move as “illegal”, the university on Thursday said that it has amended an earlier lawsuit, filed amid a broader dispute with Trump, to challenge the latest proclamation.

Alan M Garber, the president of the university, said that singling out the...

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