Obama judge blocks Trump —  gives Harvard, foreign nationals what they want at America's expense

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from ending the ability of Harvard University to enroll international students for ignoring a demand for information.

President Donald Trump significantly escalated his feud with the university on Thursday, when the administration said it would revoke Harvard's certification for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program that allowed the school to enroll international students.

'With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body. ... Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.'

The university filed a lawsuit in Boston against the decision on the basis that it violated the First Amendment of the Constitution, and U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs granted a temporary restraining order.

The order would have significantly cut into the student body at Harvard, as about 27% are international students.

“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,” read the university's lawsuit. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”

The lawsuit claimed the order would have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had requested information from the university in relation to violent and illegal activities from foreign students and gave the officials a deadline of April 30.

“Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students, and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status," read a statement from DHS.

The university claimed that it provided "thousands of data points" to the government, but Noem said they did not satisfy the request.

RELATED: Trump escalates war against Harvard by shutting down visas for international students

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

“It makes generalized statements about campus environment and ‘anti-Americanism,’ again without articulating any rational link between those statements and the decision to retaliate against international students,” read the lawsuit.

Harvard is also fighting the administration in a separate lawsuit against a Trump order cutting billions in federal funding to the university.

"The gravy train of federal assistance to institutions like Harvard, which enrich their grossly overpaid bureaucrats with tax dollars from struggling American families, is coming to an end," said Harrison Fields, a spokesperson for the White House. "Taxpayer funds are a privilege, and Harvard fails to meet the basic conditions required to access that privilege."

Burroughs was nominated by former President Barack Obama in 2014.

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