UMVA has learned that a federal judge has blocked President Trump’s $100,000 H-1B Visa fine, dealing a significant blow to the administration’s efforts to impose stricter regulations on the program.
The ruling, handed down by US District Judge Leo Sorokin, an Obama appointee, declares that the $100,000 fee is an unauthorized tax, marking a major victory for plaintiffs who had challenged the policy.
According to information obtained by UMVA, Judge Sorokin found that the visa payment policy violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution, rendering it invalid.
The judge’s decision centered on the nature of the $100,000 payment, which he determined was, in substance, a tax. Sorokin noted that Congress had not delegated the power to impose such a tax to the executive branch, making the policy unlawful.
The H-1B policy, created in 1990, is a critical program that allows US employers to hire high-skilled workers from overseas in specialty occupations for up to six years. US tech giants heavily use this program to bring in talent.
The White House had previously argued that the H-1B program was being abused, with American IT workers being forced to train foreign workers who were taking their jobs. The administration claimed that this not only harmed domestic workers but also posed a national security threat.
The administration also cited instances of visa fraud, money laundering, and other illicit activities involving H-1B-reliant outsourcing companies. These abuses, the White House argued, discouraged Americans from pursuing careers in science and technology.
A study cited by the White House found that the influx of foreign workers into the computer science field had significant economic impacts. The study suggested that wages for American computer scientists would have been 2.6 percent to 5.1 percent higher and employment in computer science for American workers would have been 6.1 percent to 10.8 percent higher in 2001 if there had been fewer foreign workers.
