Canadians studying at Harvard University say they're feeling anxious and uncertain about their futures as U.S. President Donald Trump tries to prevent the school from enrolling international students.
The school did not immediately have a current count of Canadians studying there, but numbers on its website from 2022 show there were 686 enrolled at that time.
Harvard University filed a lawsuit Friday morning in federal court in Boston challenging the Trump administration’s decision to bar the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students, describing the move as unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House’s political demands.
Hours later, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration's effort from moving forward.
The temporary restraining order stops the government from pulling Harvard’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which allows the school to host international students with visas to study in the U.S.
John Gobin, a student from Toronto who just completed second year at Harvard Law School, says the move has created stress and anxiety for him and his schoolmates.
"It's a very anxiety-inducing and stressful moment," he said in an interview. "There's a lot of uncertainty created by the action, not knowing if I'll be able to be at school in September or whatnot, so just feeling very uneasy."
Gobin said he hopes for a speedy legal resolution to the brewing fight.
"Over the semester there's been a lot in the news about Harvard, and anytime your school is in the news there'll be some type of secondary distraction," he said.
"This is a big moment of change in the country, and we're all reacting, we're all digesting, we're all processing, so it just takes extra mental bandwidth when we're already involved in very arduous studies."
Harvard enrols almost 6,800 foreign students from more than 100 countries at its campus in Cambridge, Mass.
Gobin said there is a strong international student community and a robust presence of Canadian students at Harvard.
"I feel very blessed to have many Canadian friends at the law school that I can rely on and speak to and confide in," said Gobin, who is the co-prime minister of the university's Canadian Law Students Association.
"There's forums and group chats for Canadians at Harvard and internationals at Harvard to just express ... provide anecdotal stories of interactions at the border and how to go about getting visas," he said.
He said students are trying to digest the new developments and support each other.
"It's just having other people there who are going through the same situation that you can talk to, bounce ideas off. if anything, it's therapeutic more than anything," he said.
The university said the government’s action violates the First Amendment and will have an immediate and devastating effect on more than 7,000 student visa holders at the school.
“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,” Harvard said in its suit. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”
The department of Homeland Security announced the action Thursday, accusing Harvard of creating an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus. It also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, contending the school had hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as 2024.
-- With files from the Associated Press.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2025.
Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press
