(CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) -- Ahead of a federal hearing over Harvard University's ability to enroll international students, the acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a letter Thursday giving the school 30 days to challenge the administration's revocation of that certification.
The letter formally notifies the school that its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification would be withdrawn -- but backtracks from the administration's earlier stance by giving Harvard 30 days to achieve compliance.
"Your school has 30 calendar days from the date of service of this Notice to submit written representations under oath and supported by documentary evidence, setting forth the reasons why SEVP should not withdraw your school's certification," the notice said. "If SEVP certification is withdrawn, your school will then no longer be approved to enroll or continue to educate nonimmigrant students."
The notice comes one week after Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced she had ordered the termination of the school's SEVP certification.
"As a result of your refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' policies, you have lost this privilege," Noem wrote last week in a letter to the university.
At a hearing Thursday shortly after the Trump administration issued its 30-day notice, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said she plans to issue a preliminary injunction that prohibits the Trump administration from revoking Harvard's SEVP certification without first going through the legally required procedure.
"I do think an order is necessary. It doesn't need to be draconian, but I want to make sure nothing changes. I want to maintain the status quo," the judge said at the hearing, which took place as thousands of Harvard students and their families gathered for the school's commencement.
For now, Judge Burroughs said a temporary restraining order she issued last week will remain in place until a preliminary injunction is ironed out. Over the coming days, both Harvard and the Trump administration will submit proposals for an order that would block DHS from immediately revoking the school’s SEVP certification.
Harvard, under the current ruling, will still able to enroll international students, but DHS said it still plans to pursue the administrative avenue to revoke Harvard's SEVP certification.
Judge Burroughs suggested she would allow that administrative process to play out, with Harvard submitting evidence to rebut the allegations made by DHS that they allowed antisemitism on campus and failed to provide information on international students.
The judge said that, despite the Trump administration's backtracking, she felt an order was necessary to protect Harvard's international students.
"I would feel more comfortable given what has preceded this," she said during 20-minute hearing. "It gives some protection to international students who are anxious about coming here."
Department of Justice attorney Tiberius Davis pushed back on the restraining order, saying the issue had effectively become "moot" since the Trump administration changed course.
"The Department has decided it would be better, simpler going forward, to go through the procedure," Davis said.
Despite the change, Harvard attorney Ian Gershengorn said that a restraining order was still necessary, arguing that the Trump administration was unlawfully violating the school's First Amendment rights by retaliating against the school for its decision not to budge to other demands from the government. He called the recent notice "the next step" in the Trump administration's campaign to retaliate against the school.
"There seems to be a different set of rules, procedures for Harvard," he said. "The First Amendment harms we are suffering are real and continuing."
Judge Burroughs suggested that the parties might end up coming back to court in a few months, once the legal process has played out, to determine if the potential revocation is retaliatory.
"By that point, we think the case would be quite different," Davis said.
Arguing that the Trump administration actions are part of a "campaign to coerce Harvard into surrendering its First Amendment rights," Harvard has alleged that the SEVP revocation is unlawful because it violates the school's free speech rights; that the policy is arbitrary and therefore violates the Administrative Procedure Act; and that the policy runs roughshod over the school's due process protections because it was not given the opportunity to respond to the revocation.
"The surrounding events, and Defendants' express statements, make clear that the Department of Homeland Security took these actions not for any valid reason, but purely as punishment for Harvard's speech, its perceived viewpoint, and its refusal to surrender its academic independence or relinquish its constitutional rights," the school said in its lawsuit against the Trump administration.
"It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government's demands to control Harvard's governance, curriculum, and the 'ideology' of its faculty and students," said the suit.
DHS officials have said that the revocation was necessary because Harvard failed to turn over information about international students -- including disciplinary records -- as requested by the Trump administration.
"It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused.' DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement last week.
Harvard is also fighting the Trump administration's attempt to freeze more $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to the school. Harvard filed a separate lawsuit to challenge the funding freeze in April, and the next hearing in that case is set for July.
Trump has continued to ratchet up the pressure on the school over the last two months, threatening to revoke the school's tax-exempt status, directing his administration to cancel contracts with the school, and continuing to demand information on international students. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump suggested that Harvard should cap the number of international students to 15% of the school's total student body.
"We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools, they can't get in because we have foreign students there. But I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country," Trump said.