Donald Trump’s $1,00,000 H-1B visa fee is unlawful, US judge rules

A United States judge on Monday struck down a $1,00,000 fee that had been imposed by President Donald Trump on new H-1B visas, holding that it amounted to an unlawful tax that Congress had not authorised, Reuters reported.

US District Judge Leo Sorokin passed the verdict in response to a lawsuit filed by Democratic state attorneys general challenging a fee Trump announced in September requiring companies to pay $100,000 for each new H-1B worker visa. These non-immigrant visas allow US companies to temporarily employ highly skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations.

The Trump administration argued that the fee was a lawful monetary penalty that the president was authorised to impose under federal immigration law, the news agency reported. The law allows the president to restrict the entry of foreign citizens if he considers it detrimental to American interests.

However, the judge held that the fee was not a penalty, but a tax, for which the president did not have authorisation from Congress, and which the US State Department and Citizenship and Immigration Services could not implement.

“Here, the substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that ​it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called,” Reuters quoted Sorokin as saying in his ruling.

The Trump administration said that it would appeal the...

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