Judge strikes down Trump H-1B visa fee

A federal judge in Boston on Monday struck down President Donald Trump’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, ruling that the charge was an unlawful tax that Congress had not authorized.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin said the fee, imposed on visas for highly skilled foreign workers, must be invalidated. His ruling came in a lawsuit brought by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging the fee Trump announced in September.

The fee dramatically increased the cost of seeking an H-1B visa. Employers applying for a foreign worker before Trump’s proclamation typically paid about $2,000 to $5,000 in fees, depending on various factors, Al Jazeera reported.

The H-1B program offers 65,000 visas each year, plus another 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees. The visas are approved for three to six years.

Court filings said the sharp increase discouraged H-1B visa requests. As of February 15, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had received just 85 payments of the $100,000 fee, the administration said in a March filing, according to Al Jazeera.

The administration argued that the fee was a monetary penalty the president had lawful authority to impose under federal immigration law to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals.

Sorokin rejected that argument. The judge, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, concluded that the payment was not a penalty but a tax, and that Trump lacked authorization from Congress to impose it.

“Here, the substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called,” Sorokin wrote.

The ruling invalidates one of Trump’s efforts to sharply raise the cost of hiring highly skilled foreign workers through the H-1B system. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Al Jazeera reported.