A federal judge has struck down President Donald Trump’s effort to impose a $100,000 fee on employers seeking to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program, dealing another judicial setback to the administration’s efforts to overhaul immigration and labor policies.
US District Judge Leo Sorokin ruled that the fee amounted to a tax that could not be imposed without authorization from Congress, concluding that the administration exceeded its authority when it implemented the policy through executive action.
The fee was established under a September 2025 presidential proclamation and was quickly put into effect by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.
Sorokin found that the policy violated constitutional separation-of-powers principles because Congress, not the executive branch, possesses the authority to levy taxes unless lawmakers explicitly delegate that power.
The ruling marks a victory for a coalition of pro-immigration states that challenged the policy in court. The states argued that the fee impaired their ability to recruit foreign workers for public institutions, including universities and hospitals.
Trump and his supporters have argued that the program is vulnerable to abuse and can be used to replace American workers with lower-cost foreign labor.
In the proclamation establishing the fee, Trump argued that “Abuses of the H-1B program present a national security threat by discouraging Americans from pursuing careers in science and technology, risking American leadership in these fields.”
The administration maintained that the fee was intended to discourage misuse of the visa system and incentivize employers to prioritize American workers. Despite the decision, the administration signaled it intends to continue defending the policy.
“The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said.
“A federal judge in Washington already upheld a nearly identical order, and the Administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal,” Rogers added.
