{"id":210,"date":"2026-06-08T21:40:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=210"},"modified":"2026-06-08T21:40:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:40:28","slug":"judge-halts-trumps-100000-h-1b-visa-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=210","title":{"rendered":"Judge halts Trump\u2019s $100,000 H-1B visa fee"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked President Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to charge a $100,000 fee for companies seeking to employ foreign workers with an H-1B visa, ruling in part that it oversteps Congress\u2019 taxing power.<\/p>\n

Read more Packwood, former senator who resigned amid sex scandal, dead at 93<\/a><\/p>\n

In , Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts found the Trump administration\u2019s policy was effectively a tax, and that Congress in an immigration law had not given presidents the power to tax.<\/p>\n

Sorokin wrote that although the statute gives the president broad powers to restrict entry into the country, \u201cnone of these terms, by their ordinary meaning, include the power to tax.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also rejected the administration\u2019s effort to call the fee a \u201cregulatory payment\u201d that could fall within Trump\u2019s power to raise.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendants offer no definition for what constitutes \u2018a regulatory payment,\u2019 cite no cases or statutes employing the term, and advance no reasoned argument explaining how this term encompasses something different than a tax or a penalty,\u201d Sorokin wrote.<\/p>\n

California and other states filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration in December, arguing that the new fee endangered communities\u2019 ability to find qualified teachers, health care professionals and other needed services. The suit is one of several pending against the administration\u2019s effort to restrict visas for high-skilled workers.<\/p>\n

The program provides some 85,000 visas for so-called high-skill foreign workers on a lottery program, with some exceptions for nonprofit organizations and educational institutions.<\/p>\n

Read more Bitter rivalry? At the Congressional Baseball Game, sort of<\/a><\/p>\n

Arguing that companies had abused the visas to replace American workers with lower-skill foreign workers, Trump in September sought to hike the fee to apply for a visa to $100,000.<\/p>\n

Sorokin, in finding the fee was essentially a tax, wrote that \u201cthe President has no authority to levy a tax unless such a power is delegated by Congress through statute.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he brushed aside the Trump administration\u2019s arguments that it was not a tax because it is collected by the Department of Homeland Security, and that it may end up reducing revenue because of a reduction in H-1B applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoreover, every $100,000 payment made pursuant to the Policy does raise revenue. That is indisputable. No legal authority suggests that a payment requirement qualifies as a tax only if it increases the total revenue generated from that particular tax,\u201d Sorokin wrote.<\/p>\n

Sorokin compared the fee to Congress\u2019 power to tax still-legal products like tobacco. Just because higher taxes on tobacco products may reduce revenue does not make them anything other than a tax, he wrote.<\/p>\n

Read more Lawsuit to stop \u2018anti-weaponization\u2019 fund moot, DOJ tells court<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked President Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to charge a $100,000 fee for companies seeking to employ foreign workers with an H-1B visa, ruling in part that it oversteps Congress\u2019 taxing power. In the ruling, Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy"],"yoast_head":"\nJudge halts Trump\u2019s $100,000 H-1B visa fee - American Industry Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=210\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge halts Trump\u2019s $100,000 H-1B visa fee - American Industry Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked President Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to charge a $100,000 fee for companies seeking to employ foreign workers with an H-1B visa, ruling in part that it oversteps Congress\u2019 taxing power. 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