A major Trump immigration policy just hit a wall it didn’t see coming. A federal court ruling could reshape the future of America’s most critical skilled worker visa program.
Judge blocks major Donald Trump policy
A federal judge on Monday vacated President Donald Trump’s $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications, CNBC reported. Judge Leo Sorokin ruled in U.S. District Court in Boston that the policy violated the Administrative Procedure Act. He also found it violated the Constitution.
Sorokin agreed with 20 states that challenged the policy in a lawsuit filed in December. The judge determined that the $100,000 payment functionally operates as a tax. He ruled that Congress had not delegated that taxing power to the executive branch.
The ruling also cited a Supreme Court precedent set in February. The high court had struck down Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs on similar constitutional grounds. In that case, tariffs assessed by the Department of Homeland Security amounted to taxes under the Taxing Clause.
New York Attorney General Letitia James praised the decision following the ruling. “Today a court put an end to this administration’s illegal attempt to destroy this critical program,” James said. She added that thousands of H-1B holders serve New Yorkers as doctors, teachers and skilled workers.
Trump implemented the fee through a presidential proclamation last September. He argued the program was being misused and undermined national security through “large-scale replacement of American workers.”
Prior to the change, application fees had ranged from $2,000 to $5,000. The fee increase effectively froze participation in the program. Several companies, including Walmart, paused their involvement after the proclamation took effect. Only 85 payments of the $100,000 fee had been made as of February 15.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said the administration plans to appeal the ruling. “The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it,” Rogers said. She noted a federal judge in Washington had already upheld “a nearly identical order.”
Originally reported by Vritti Johar on Mandatory.
