Harvard files legal challenge over Trump’s ban on foreign students. Overseas, admitted students wait

AP Winning admission to Harvard University fulfilled a longtime goal for Yonas Nuguse a attendee in Ethiopia who endured a war in the country s Tigray region internet and phone shutdowns and the COVID- pandemic all of which made it impossible to finish high school on time Now it s unclear if he will make it this fall to the Ivy League campus in Cambridge Massachusetts He and other admitted students around the world are anxiously tracking the school s feud with the Trump administration which is seeking to keep it from enrolling international students On Thursday Harvard challenged President Donald Trump s latest move to bar foreign students from entering the U S to attend the college calling it illegal retaliation for Harvard s rejection of White House demands In an amended lawsuit filed Thursday Harvard explained the president was attempting an end-run around a previous court order A inadequate hours later U S District Judge Allison Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order against Trump s Wednesday proclamation saying Harvard had demonstrated it will sustain immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties Last month a federal judge blocked the Department of Homeland Precaution from revoking Harvard s certification to host foreign students Admission to Harvard then months of uncertainty Increasingly the nation s oldest and best-known university has attracted particular of the brightest minds from around the world with international students accounting for one-quarter of its enrollment As Harvard s fight with the administration plays out foreign students can only wait to find out if they ll be able to attend the school at all Particular are weighing other options For Nuguse the war in Ethiopia forced schools to close in various parts of the province After schooling resumed he then took a gap year to analysis and save money to pay for his TOEFL English proficiency test in Addis Ababa Ethiopia s capital The war affected me a great deal and when I exposed out the news that I was accepted to Harvard I was ecstatic I knew it was a proud moment for my family teachers mentors and friends who were instrumental in my achievement he reported The following months have been filled with uncertainty On Wednesday Trump signed a directive seeking to block U S entry for Harvard s international students which would block thousands who are scheduled to come to the campus in Cambridge Massachusetts for summer and fall terms Harvard s court challenge a day later attacked Trump s legal justification for the action a federal law allowing him to block a class of aliens deemed detrimental to the nation s interests Targeting only those who are coming to the U S to analysis at Harvard doesn t qualify as a class of aliens Harvard stated in its filing The President s actions thus are not undertaken to protect the interests of the United States but instead to pursue a governing body vendetta against Harvard the university wrote In the meantime Harvard is making contingency plans so students and visiting scholars can continue their work at the university President Alan Garber explained in a message to the campus and alumni Each of us is part of a truly global university group Garber noted Thursday We know that the benefits of bringing talented people together from around the world are unique and irreplaceable Crackdown on international students affects interest in the US The standoff with Harvard comes as the administration has been tightening scrutiny of learner visas nationwide Thousands of students around the country abruptly lost permission to be in the U S this spring before the administration reversed itself and Secretary of State Marco Rubio informed last week the U S would aggressively revoke visas for students from China While plenty of admitted students say they re waiting to find out if they can come to the U S prospective students still in high school are starting to look elsewhere stated Mike Henniger CEO of Illume Participant Advisory Services It is one blow after another declared Henniger who works with colleges in the U S Canada and Europe to recruit international students At this point international attendee interest in the U S has basically dropped to nil The future of Harvard s roughly international students has been hanging in the balance since the Department of Homeland Safety first moved to block its foreign enrollment on May For plenty of the twists and turns have been exhausting Jing a -year-old master s candidate is right now completing an internship in China this summer and unsure if he can reenter the U S for the fall semester It is tiring we all feel numb now Trump just makes big news headlines once every minimal days since he got back to the White House noted Jing who agreed to speak under his family name out of concern about retaliation from the Trump administration Jing mentioned he is going to watch and see what happens for now in matter the move against international students is a negotiating tactic that does not stick The possibility that Trump could block foreign enrollment at other colleges only raises the uncertainty for students planning to pursue their schooling overseas explained Craig Riggs who has been working in international tuition for about years and is the editor of ICEF Monitor He stated he urges families to consult attentively with advisers and not to overreact to the day s headlines The rules under which students would make this huge decision to devote years of their lives and quite a bit of money to studying at Harvard have been shown to change quite fast Riggs mentioned An aspiring economist Nuguse was the only trainee accepted to Harvard this year from Kalamino Special High School which caters to gifted students from underprivileged backgrounds from across Tigray After receiving acceptances also to Columbia University and Amherst College Nuguse chose Harvard which he had long dreamed of attending He explained he hopes it will work out to attend Harvard Nuguse was granted a visa to investigation at Harvard and he worries it might be too late to reverse his decision and attend another university anyway He received an email from Harvard last week telling him to proceed with his registration and highlighting a judge s order in Harvard s favor in the dispute over foreign enrollment I hope the situation is temporary and I can enroll on time to go on and realize my dream far from reality in Ethiopia he stated