US judge blocks Trump’s $100,000 fee for H-1B visas

Lead

A US federal judge has struck down the $100,000 fee that President Donald Trump imposed on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, ruling that it constituted an unlawful tax that Congress never authorized. The decision, issued on Monday by US District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston, came in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging the fee, which Trump announced in September and which dramatically raised the cost of obtaining H-1B visas.

Coverage comparison

The ruling was reported by multiple news outlets, including ABC Australia, Al Jazeera, Dawn, The Guardian, the Jerusalem Post, the South China Morning Post, and The Hindu. All reported the core facts of the judge's decision. The Hindu also provided additional context, reporting that US lawmakers, including some Republicans, welcomed the court order, and that the White House is expected to challenge the ruling in an appeals court.

Key claims

The H-1B program offers 65,000 visas annually, with an additional 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees, approved for three to six years. Employers seeking a visa for a foreign worker before Trump's proclamation typically paid about $2,000 to $5,000 in fees, depending on various factors. The increase in fees has discouraged H-1B visa requests, according to court filings. As of February 15, US Citizenship and Immigration Services had received just 85 payments of the $100,000 fee, the administration said in a March filing.

The Trump administration had argued that the fee constituted a monetary penalty that the president had lawful authority to impose under federal immigration law to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals. But Judge Sorokin, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, concluded that the fee was not a penalty but a tax that the Republican president lacked any authorization from Congress to issue. "Here, the substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called," he wrote.

Perspectives

Trump administration

The White House indicated that the order will be challenged in an appellate court. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said, "The H-1B programme has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it." Rogers also noted that "a federal judge in Washington already upheld a nearly identical order, and the administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal."

US lawmakers

Several US lawmakers welcomed the court order. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, said that "many school districts in rural and remote parts of the state rely on the H-1B visa programme to bring quality teachers to their communities," and added that the H-1B was not a partisan issue in Alaska. Congressman Don Beyer, a Democrat from North Virginia, said, "I'm glad to see the court block President Trump's unlawful H-1B visa fees, which imposed significant new costs and an unnecessary burden on already understaffed healthcare facilities across the country." Republican Congressman Mike Lawler, who said he had been working on legislation to exempt healthcare workers from the fee, called the ruling "welcome news."