A U.S. District Court judge has struck down President Donald Trump‘s policy imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, popular among the tech sector and universities to hire foreign skilled workers.
Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the ruling Monday, June 8, in a lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen Democratic state attorneys general, finding the fee constituted an unlawful tax Congress never authorized.
The states’ top prosecutors, 20 in all, had challenged the fee Trump announced in September that dramatically raised the cost of obtaining the special visas.
Trump’s fees were part of a broader strategy to favor U.S. citizens over foreign workers, USA TODAY reported. The higher visa costs came amid the Trump administration’s central immigration reforms and deportation crackdown, the centerpieces of the president’s 2024 campaign.
“The substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called,” Sorokin wrote in his 42-page ruling.
The program offers 65,000 visas annually, and another 20,000 visas for employees with advanced degrees, approved for three to six years. Employers seeking a visa for a foreign worker before Trump’s proclamation typically paid $2,000 to $5,000 in fees, depending on various factors.
The increased costs have discouraged H-1B visa requests, according to court filings.
As of February 15, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had received just 85 payments of the $100,000 fee, Reuters reported the administration said in a March filing.
Appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama, Sorokin ruled the fee was not a penalty but a tax the Republican president imposed without authorization from Congress.
“The Policy implementing the Proclamation is declared unlawful and is vacated in its entirety,” Sorokin concluded in the ruling.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to USA TODAY that “President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America’s best interests, and that is exactly what he did.”
“The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it.”
Yes. Despite the judge vacating the $100,000 fee, under the law the ruling can still be appealed in higher courts.
Rogers, the White House spokesperson, indicated the administration would appeal the decision: “A federal judge in Washington already upheld a nearly identical order, and the Administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal.”
The $100,000 fee prompted at least three lawsuits challenging its implementation, including a case by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is appealing a December decision by a judge in Washington who rejected its claims that Trump had no authority to set the fee.
Contributing: Reuters; Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
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