An Obama-appointed federal judge has struck down a $100,000 fee imposed by President Trump on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, ruling the charge amounts to an unlawful tax that Congress never authorized.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin of Boston issued the decision Monday in a lawsuit brought by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging the administration’s September policy that increased the cost of obtaining H-1B visas. The Trump administration argued the fee was a lawful immigration penalty designed to restrict entry of certain foreign nationals.
Sorokin rejected that argument, concluding the payment functioned as a tax rather than a penalty and therefore required congressional approval.
