The coalition argued that President Donald Trump lacks the authority to unilaterally impose the fee.
A coalition of labor unions, health care providers, religious organizations, and university professors filed a lawsuit on Oct. 3 seeking to prevent the Trump administration from imposing a one-time $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications.
The coalition sought to challenge President Donald Trump’s Sept. 18 proclamation introducing the six-figure fee for new H-1B visa applications—a program that allows U.S. companies to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupation fields.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, states that the proclamation exceeds Trump’s Constitutional power as president and conflicts with the statutory framework of the H-1B program.
In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the fee requirement is legal and that it was aimed at “discouraging companies from spamming the system and driving down American wages, while providing certainty to employers who need to bring the best talent from overseas.”
The administration has previously said that the six-figure fee would only apply to new visa applications, not to renewals or current visa holders.
In the lawsuit, the coalition alleged that Trump has no authority to unilaterally impose fees, taxes, or other mechanisms to generate revenue for the United States.
“Here, the President disregarded those limitations, asserted power he does not have, and displaced a complex, Congressionally specified system for evaluating petitions and granting H-1B visas,” the lawsuit stated.
“The Proclamation transforms the H-1B program into one where employers must either ‘pay to play’ or seek a ‘national interest’ exemption, which will be doled out at the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security, a system that opens the door to selective enforcement and corruption,” it added.
The coalition claimed that the Trump administration failed to assess how the fees would affect hospitals, schools, churches, and universities that rely on the H-1B program.
“Without relief, hospitals will lose medical staff, churches will lose pastors, classrooms will lose teachers, and industries across the country risk losing key innovators,” Democracy Forward Foundation, which represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
