*

Federal judge in Boston considers issuing injunction

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Trump suspended ability of foreign nationals to study at

Harvard

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Harvard accuses Trump of infringing its First Amendment

rights

(Adds further details on court hearing in paragraphs 5-8,

15-18)

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, June 16 (Reuters) - A federal judge said on

Monday that she would issue a brief extension of an order

temporarily blocking President Donald Trump's plan to bar

foreign nationals from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard

University while she decides whether to issue a longer-term

injunction.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, at the end of a

hearing in Boston in Harvard's legal challenge to the

restrictions, extended to June 23 a temporary restraining order

that had been set to expire on Thursday. She said she wanted to

give herself more time to prepare a ruling.

"We'll kick out an opinion as soon as we can," she said.

The judge scheduled the hearing after issuing a temporary

restraining order on June 5 preventing the administration from

implementing a proclamation that Trump had signed a day earlier.

A preliminary injunction would provide longer-term relief to

Harvard while its lawsuits proceeds.

Almost 6,800 international students attended Harvard in its

most recent school year, making up about 27% of the student

population of the prestigious Cambridge, Massachusetts-based

school.

The judge, an appointee of Democratic President Barack

Obama, did not indicate how she would ultimately rule. But she

said a U.S. Department of Justice attorney defending Trump's

policy faced an "uphill battle" convincing her that Harvard

would not be irreparably harmed if the proclamation was

implemented.

Ian Gershengorn, the school's lawyer, told the judge the

"impact of the proclamation is devastating to Harvard and its

students."

He said Trump signed the proclamation to retaliate

against Harvard in violation of its free speech rights under the

U.S. Constitution's First Amendment for refusing to accede to

the administration's demands to control the school's governance,

curriculum and the ideology of its faculty and students.

Justice Department attorney Tiberius Davis countered

that Congress had given Trump "sweeping authority" under the

Immigration and Nationality Act to suspend the entry of specific

categories of foreign nationals, which the president relied on

to address national security concerns at Harvard.

"We don't trust them to host foreign students," Davis said.

The Trump administration has launched a multifront attack on

the oldest and wealthiest U.S. university, freezing billions of

dollars in grants and other funding and proposing to end its

tax-exempt status, prompting a series of legal challenges.

Harvard has filed two separate lawsuits before Burroughs

seeking to unfreeze around $2.5 billion in funding and to

prevent the administration from blocking the ability of

international students to attend the university.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on May 22 announced

that her department was immediately revoking Harvard's Student

and Exchange Visitor Program certification, the governmental

mechanism that allows it to enroll foreign students.

Her action was almost immediately blocked by Burroughs.

While the Department of Homeland Security has since shifted to

challenging Harvard's certification through a months-long

administrative process, Burroughs at a May 29 hearing said she

planned to issue a "broad" injunction to maintain the status

quo.

A week later, though, Trump signed his proclamation, which

cited national security concerns to contend that Harvard is "no

longer a trustworthy steward of international student and

exchange visitor programs."

The proclamation suspended the entry of foreign nationals to

study at Harvard or participate in exchange visitor programs for

an initial period of six months and directed Secretary of State

Marco Rubio to consider whether to revoke visas of international

students already enrolled at Harvard.

At Monday's hearing, Davis cited Harvard's acceptance of

foreign money including from China and what he said was an

inadequate response to the administration's demand for

information on foreign students who engaged in illegal activity

during a period of "increased unrest" on its campus as examples

of those national security concerns.

Trump has accused Harvard of creating an unsafe environment

for Jewish students and allowing antisemitism to fester on its

campus. Protests over Israel's treatment of Palestinians during

its war with Hamas in Gaza have roiled numerous universities'

campuses, including Harvard's.