The Trump administration said Monday that Harvard University violated federal civil rights law by failing to address the harassment of Jewish students on campus, increasing the pressure on the Ivy League school as it negotiates a possible settlement with the White House.

In a letter to Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, on Monday, officials from four federal agencies said that the university was “in violent violation of Title VI,” a portion of federal civil rights law that bars discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. In recent years, government officials have interpreted the provision to include “shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics” as within the law’s protections.

In their letter, the Trump administration officials said that Harvard’s “commitment to racial hierarchies” had “enabled antisemitism to fester” at the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university. They warned that not making “adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government.”

Harvard sharply disputed the government’s account, saying in a statement Monday that antisemitism was “a serious problem” that the school had taken significant steps to address. The university added that it was “far from indifferent on this issue” and that it “strongly disagrees with the government’s findings.”

The letter is only the latest broadside in the Trump administration’s quest to reshape Harvard, and the university’s struggle to maintain access to billions of dollars in federal research money. Although the university and the White House have recently been in negotiations over a possible settlement, their monthslong dispute has been marked by litigation, acidic public statements and deep disputes over the government’s role in higher education.

Judge probes strategy on birthright citizenship

A federal judge on Monday questioned when the Trump administration will try to enforce its birthright citizenship executive order and asked if the government would attempt to deport U.S.-born children of people who are in the country illegally or temporarily before restrictions on birthright citizenship might take effect in late July.

Justice Department attorney Brad Rosenberg told U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman that the administration doesn’t intend to deport any children covered by President Donald Trump’s executive while the Supreme Court has suspended its enforcement for 30 days. He called it a “hypothetical” question.

The judge gave Rosenberg until Tuesday to submit a written summary of what the administration believes it “can and can’t do” after last Friday’s Supreme Court ruling. She asked if the government would be “seeking to deport babies” before July 26. The judge said her question referred to children who were born after Feb. 19 and are covered by Trump’s executive order but aren’t plaintiffs in litigation challenging the order.

“No,” Rosenberg said. “I just want to be clear. I am responding to the court’s characterization of what it believes the United States might do after 30 days from the date of the Supreme Court’s decision. But, again, I would note that (federal agencies) have all been tasked with developing guidelines for implementation of the executive order. So I view that as a hypothetical.”

“I take the government at its word that the United States does not intend to do that and it is not doing that,” Boardman said.

270 EPA employees rebuke leadership

More than 270 employees of the Environmental Protection Agency signed a letter Monday denouncing what they described as the Trump administration’s efforts to politicize, dismantle and sideline the main federal agency tasked with protecting the environment and public health.

The letter to President Donald Trump’s EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, was a remarkable rebuke of the agency’s political leadership. It followed a similar missive sent this month by more than 60 employees of the National Institutes of Health, who criticized orders they saw as illegal and unethical.

“EPA employees join in solidarity with employees across the federal government in opposing this administration’s policies, including those that undermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment,” the EPA workers wrote.

Asked for comment, EPA spokesperson Carolyn Holran wrote in an email: “The Trump EPA will continue to work with states, tribes and communities to advance the agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment and Administrator Zeldin’s Powering the Great American Comeback Initiative, which includes providing clean air, land and water for EVERY American.”

Obama, Bush, Bono criticize USAID attack

Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration — and singer Bono recited a poem — in an emotional video farewell Monday with staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Obama called the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID “a colossal mistake.”

Monday was the last day as an independent agency for the six-decade-old humanitarian and development organization, created by President John F. Kennedy as a peaceful way of promoting U.S. national security by boosting goodwill and prosperity abroad.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered USAID absorbed into the State Department on Tuesday.

The former presidents and Bono spoke with thousands in the USAID community in a video conference, which was billed as a closed-press event to allow political leaders and others privacy for sometimes angry and often teary remarks. Parts of the video were shared with The Associated Press.

They expressed their appreciation for the thousands of USAID staffers who have lost their jobs and life’s work. Their agency was one of the first and most fiercely targeted for government-cutting by President Donald Trump and his billionaire donor and ally Elon Musk.

1798 law wielded by Trump argued in court

Immigration and administration lawyers on Monday battled over whether President Donald Trump can use an 18th century wartime act against a Venezuelan gang in a case that is likely to ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The attorneys sparred before a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, the latest step in a tangled legal battle over Trump’s March invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against the Tren de Aragua gang.

The law has only previously been used during World Wars I and II and the War of 1812. ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt told the three-judge panel that Trump’s use of it is inappropriate. “This has only been invoked three times in major, major wars, and now it’s being invoked in connection with a gang,” Gelernt said.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign, arguing for the administration, said that courts cannot second-guess a president’s determination that the U.S. faces a threat from abroad and requires extraordinary measures to protect itself. He noted that the only time the high court weighed in on the act was in a case that dates from after fighting in Europe ended in World War II, when the court said it could not second-guess then-President Harry Truman’s assertion that suspected Nazis should still be held under the act because the war was still continuing.

White House sues L.A., alleging obstruction

President Donald Trump’s administration filed suit Monday against Los Angeles, claiming the city is obstructing the enforcement of immigration laws and creating a lawless environment with its sanctuary policies that bar local police from sharing information on people without legal status.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court says Los Angeles’ “sanctuary city” ordinance hinders White House efforts to crack down on what it calls a “crisis of illegal immigration.” It is the latest in a string of lawsuits against so-called sanctuary jurisdictions — including New York,New Jersey and Colorado — that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

The Los Angeles policy bars city resources from being used for immigration enforcement. The court filing calls the city ordinance “illegal” and asks that it be blocked from being enforced.

Chad Mizelle, chief of staff for U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, said in announcing the latest lawsuit that the administration will not tolerate any interference with the federal government’s crackdown.

A spokesperson for City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto said the city’s ordinance was “carefully drafted” and complies with federal law and constitutional principles separating state and federal powers.

Congress faces rules for visiting ICE facilities

The Department of Homeland Security has formally instituted a new requirement that members of Congress and their staff provide a week of notice before they visit immigration detention facilities, a policy at odds with a federal law that allows lawmakers to make unannounced oversight trips.

The department’s guidance, posted on the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement website, says that it “requires requests be made a minimum” of seven days in advance of any visits to detention facilities. Any shorter timelines must be approved by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The guidance codifies a statement made in June by a department spokesperson and is the latest escalation in a conflict between federal officials and Democratic lawmakers over the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and the constitutional separation of powers.

It comes seven weeks after a clash between Democratic lawmakers and immigration officers outside a detention center in Newark, N.J.

Trump lifts sanctions on Syria, despite concerns

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday lifting most of the country’s economic sanctions on Syria, tightening his embrace of a new government in Damascus despite concerns about its leaders’ past ties to al-Qaida.

The move, which scrapped decades of U.S. policy toward Syria, delivered on a surprise announcement by Trump in May during a trip to the Middle East. At a stop in Saudi Arabia, Trump met with President Ahmad al-Sharaa of Syria, who assumed power in December after his fighters deposed longtime dictator Bashar Assad.

Trump declared al-Sharaa, who previously led a rebel group designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization, “young, attractive” and “tough,” and said Syria deserved “a chance” to rebuild after a devastating civil war that began in March 2011.

— News service reports