WASHINGTON DC: A judge has blocked President Trump’s controversial $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications from being implemented, ruling it was illegal and outside presidential power.
The Trump administration overstepped the Constitution with the fee because Congress did not approve of its implementation. US Federal District Judge Leo Sorokin stated, “the executive branch does not have the power to do that”.
The $100,000 fee, deemed a tax no matter the way it was presented, “has the characteristics of a tax,” but the court concluded that the executive branch had no legal right to enforce it on applications for H-1B visas.
The case was initiated by 20 US states, including California, which claimed the change would have drastic consequences on businesses and skilled workers from abroad.
The Department of Homeland Security described the judgment as an example of “judicial activism” following the court’s decision. The H-1B visa was introduced by Congress in 1990 and allows US businesses to hire skilled professionals from abroad for temporary positions of up to six years in niche fields.
There is an annual cap of 65,000 visas from Congress, with an additional 20,000 visas available to those with graduate degrees.
Before the proposed change, sponsoring employers only had to pay around $1,700 to $4,500 per application to fund the H-1B program, and now that figure has risen to $100,000 by the Trump administration.