Trump Administration Moves To Impose More Than 100,Thousand Dollars Fee For H-1b Worker Visas
President Donald Trump’s administration released a proposed regulation to codify an unprecedented more than 100 thousands dollars fee on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers that Trump first imposed last year but has been blocked by the courts.
The fee first imposed by Trump was vastly raises the cost of the visas that are heavily relied on in the tech, education and research sectors.
Trump’s 2025 proclamation imposing the fee expires in September, one year after it was issued, but directed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to adopt regulations making it permanent.
The lawsuits claim that Trump’s power to restrict entry does not allow him to override the law that created the H-1B visa program. The states and groups that sued also say that the Homeland Security Department cannot impose fees, taxes or other means to generate revenue for the United States without permission from Congress.
The Trump administration has maintained that the fee is not a traditional tax and that courts have little power to question the president’s authority to restrict entry into the country.
