Federal judge strikes down Trump's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for high-skilled workers

By — Michael Casey, Associated Press Michael Casey, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/federal-judge-strikes-down-trumps-100000-fee-on-new-h-1b-visas-for-high-skilled-workers Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Federal judge strikes down Trump's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for high-skilled workers Politics Jun 8, 2026 5:57 PM EDT BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday struck down the Trump administration's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, contradicting an earlier federal court ruling upholding the fee hike. The administration announced the much-higher fee as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs. But U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston sided with 20 states and struck down the visa policy, concluding that the executive branch exceeded its authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations. READ MORE: Here's why experts think Trump took 'a sledgehammer' to the H-1B visa worker program "The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress," Sorokin wrote. H-1B visas are meant for high-skilled jobs are difficult to find American workers to fill. Deep-pocketed technology companies are the biggest users, with nearly three-quarters of approvals going to workers from India. The states argued that using the H-1B program to fill vacancies for much-needed doctors and teachers was already difficult before the higher fee. Most H-1B visa applications cost several thousand dollars before the announced increase set off a wave of panic among confused employers, students and workers in the United States and abroad and led to several lawsuits, including in Boston. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also sued, in federal court in Washington, D.C., and has appealed a denial of a summary judgment against the fee hike. That left the higher fee in effect, at least until September 2026, when it is scheduled to expire. Monday's ruling is also a summary judgment, to the opposite effect. Still another lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco, by religious groups and labor organizations, setting up the possibility of divided rulings in three appellate court circuits. The states argued that the policy impedes their ability to hire primary and secondary school educators and to staff public colleges and universities, will stymie academic research and will lead to a decline in medical workers. "The Proclamation makes various overtures to domestic economic policy goals to justify the unprecedented $100,000 fee," plaintiffs wrote in their complaint. "But the Proclamation gives no indication that the President gave any consideration to how the fee would affect Plaintiff States and their ability to p