US District Judge Alison Burroughs ruled in favor of the Ivy League college affiliated with Harvard University. She stated that the cuts imposed by the Trump administration amounted to illegal retaliation for Harvard’s refusal to comply with White House demands to change its management style and policies.

The Trump administration had previously announced it would freeze $2.2 billion in grants and contracts and threatened to revoke the university’s ability to host international students.

The US government increasingly targeted higher education institutions with federal funding in an attempt to force compliance with the Trump administration’s political agenda.

This series of threats and subsequent funding freezes for some of the top US universities became an unprecedented tool used by the administration to influence universities.

Trump pledged to continue these federal cuts during his last election campaign, stating he would focus on schools promoting “critical race theory, transgender madness, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content.”

Republican officials also scrutinized universities where pro-Palestinian protests erupted on campus amid last year’s war on Gaza, while many Ivy League college presidents testified before Congress to discuss allegations of anti-Semitism.

Trump and other officials accused protesters and others of being “Hamas supporters,” while many protesters affirmed they were demonstrating against Israel’s actions in the Gaza war.

This year, the US government used its immigration enforcement powers to suppress international students and researchers who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations or criticized Israel’s military actions in Gaza; some were arrested or deported, and others fled the US after learning their visas were canceled.

Columbia University in New York initially agreed to several Trump administration demands, but its acting president took a more defiant tone in a letter to the university on Monday, stating some of these demands were “non-negotiable.”

According to an Associated Press review of university data and correspondence with school officials, about 1,000 international students had their visas canceled or their legal status terminated at US colleges, universities, and university systems since late March.