Judge Strikes Down Trump's $100K H-1B Visa Fee

A federal judge just shut down President Trump's attempt to tack a $100,000 charge onto many H-1B visa applications for high-skilled workers, calling the move an improper "tax" that only Congress can authorize, reports Reuters. US District Judge Richard Stearns ruled that the 2025 proclamation behind the fee violated the separation of powers. The decision is a win for states that argued the fee hampered hiring at public universities and hospitals, which often rely on high-skilled foreign workers, notes Politico.

Stearns leaned on two Supreme Court cases: the decision treating Obamacare's individual mandate as a tax, and a more recent ruling that curbed Trump's broad use of tariff powers, saying presidents need clear permission from Congress to impose taxes. The H-1B program, created in its current form in 1990, lets employers bring in specialized workers and is capped at 85,000 visas a year—though many public institutions are exempt from that limit. Trump has maintained that the program is abused to undercut American workers and has framed those alleged abuses as a national security risk. The White House and Justice Department declined to comment.