President Donald Trump speaks before signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on September 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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A federal judge on Monday threw out President Donald Trump’s $100,000 grant for H-1B employer visa applications.
The policy that applies large fees to high-skilled worker visas violates the Federal Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution, Judge Leo Sorokin declared in a decision in the US District Court in Boston.
The Trump administration plans to appeal the decision.
“Every day, thousands of people with H-1B visas work for New Yorkers as doctors, teachers and other skilled workers,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose case is one of 20 that brought the case.
“Today the court has put an end to the illegal attempt by these administrations to destroy this critical program and many possible jobs,” said James.
Sorokin agreed with the states in finding “the totality and use of the $100,000 payment constitutes a tax,” and that Congress did not grant that power to the executive branch.
The judge cited a precedent set by the Supreme Court in February, when it struck down Trump’s “retroactive” tariffs on the grounds that he lacked the legal authority to enforce them.
In that case, the high court ruled that tariffs assessed by the Department of Homeland Security “are tantamount to taxes for purposes of the Tariff Clause,” Sorokin noted. The Department of Homeland Security is the defendant in the H-1B case.
The H-1B policy was established in 1990 and is widely used by US technology giants to bring in highly skilled workers from overseas. This program allows US employers to seek government approval to hire nonimmigrant workers in special jobs for up to six years.
Trump spent $100,000 on a presidential campaign last September. He pointed out that the H-1B visa program was being misused and undermined the economic and national security of the US by “massively replacing American workers.”
Before the change, H-1B visa fees ranged from $2,000 to $5,000 per application, CNBC previously reported.
Several companies, including Walmart, said they would temporarily suspend their participation in the H-1B program as a result of Trump’s announcement.
The program has 65,000 visas per year, and another 20,000 for those with a master’s degree or doctorate from a US institution. But only 85 payments of $100,000 have been made since February 15, the Trump administration said in a March filing, Reuters reported.
White House spokesman Taylor Rogers told CNBC in a statement after Monday’s decision, “President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry to any group of aliens he determines is not in the best interest of America, and that’s exactly what he did.”
“The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it. A federal judge in Washington has already upheld a similar order, and the Administration hopes the order will be overturned on appeal,” Rogers said.
The lawsuit was filed in December against the Trump administration and a number of senior officials. The US Chamber of Commerce in October filed its own lawsuit challenging the $100,000 H-1B visa policy.
