{"id":2743,"date":"2026-06-09T23:31:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T18:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/?p=2743"},"modified":"2026-06-09T23:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T18:01:40","slug":"us-judge-strikes-down-trumps-h-1b-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/?p=2743","title":{"rendered":"US judge strikes down Trump\u2019s H-1B fee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Washington, A federal judge struck down President Donald Trump’s controversial $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions, ruling that the administration exceeded its authority and imposed what amounted to an unlawful tax without approval from Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a major setback for the administration’s immigration agenda, US District Judge Leo T. Sorokin of Massachusetts sided with a coalition of 20 states challenging the policy and vacated it nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,\u201d Sorokin wrote. \u201cThere are no statutory powers authorizing Defendants to implement a $100,000 tax on H-1B petitions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling overturns a September 2025 presidential proclamation that required employers filing new H-1B petitions to make an additional $100,000 payment. The administration had argued that the H-1B programme was being exploited to replace American workers and suppress wages in key sectors, particularly science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The states contended that the measure would make it significantly more difficult for public schools, universities and healthcare systems to recruit skilled foreign professionals, worsening existing staffing shortages. The court agreed that the policy threatened to impede hiring in education, academic research and healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorokin rejected the administration’s argument that broad presidential powers under immigration law allowed the fee to be imposed as a condition of entry into the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the Executive has broad discretion over the admission and exclusion of aliens, . . . that discretion is not boundless,\u2019\u201d the judge wrote. He added that such discretion \u201cmay not transgress constitutional limitations\u201d or \u201cthe statutory authority conferred by Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the centre of the case was whether the fee was a legitimate immigration restriction or an unauthorised tax. Sorokin concluded it was the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTaxes are not \u2018restrictions,\u2019\u201d he wrote while rejecting the government’s interpretation of presidential powers under the Immigration and Nationality Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge said Congress had never delegated its taxing authority to the President through the immigration statutes cited by the administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese considerations preclude reading INA \u00a7\u00a7 212(f) and 215(a) as delegating Congress\u2019s exclusive power to tax,\u201d Sorokin wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the constitutional issues, the court found that federal agencies violated the Administrative Procedure Act by implementing the policy without following the required notice-and-comment rulemaking process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDefendants issued a legislative rule without engaging in notice-and-commenting rulemaking,\u201d the ruling said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court also found the policy arbitrary and capricious, saying agencies failed to adequately explain the unprecedented increase in costs imposed on employers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe administrative record is devoid of any indication that Defendants \u2018reasonably considered the relevant issues and reasonably explained the decision\u2019 to implement a $100,000 tax on H-1B petitions,\u201d Sorokin wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a remedy, the judge declared the policy unlawful and vacated all agency actions implementing the payment requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Policy implementing the Proclamation is declared unlawful and is VACATED in its entirety,\u201d the ruling said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The H-1B programme allows US employers to hire foreign professionals in speciality occupations requiring highly specialised knowledge and at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress currently caps most new H-1B visas at 65,000 annually, with an additional 20,000 reserved for holders of advanced US degrees. Universities, affiliated non-profit institutions and certain research organisations are exempt from those annual limits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, A federal judge struck down President Donald Trump’s controversial $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions, ruling that the administration exceeded its authority and imposed what amounted to an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-display","category-international","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2745,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2743\/revisions\/2745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}