A federal judge threw out the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on H-1B visas for highly skilled workers Monday, which had been challenged by California and 19 other states.
In the 42-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin of Massachusetts declared President Donald Trump’s feeunlawful. He said the president unilaterally imposed an illegal tax, bypassing Congress, and failed to consider the impact of his actions on sectors experiencing labor shortages that rely on the program to hire physicians, nurses and teachers.
Trump’s “decision to implement a tax was not within his inherent constitutional powers,” or his authority under federal immigration laws, he wrote. The fee, which previously topped out at $5,000, led to fewer applications for H-1B workers, the judge said.
The Trump administration is expected to appeal the ruling.
“President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America’s best interests, and that is exactly what he did,” said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman. “The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led the multi-state coalition that filed the lawsuit last year, cheered the ruling, saying the visas will allow U.S. employers to fill jobs in industries such as health care that are experiencing labor shortages.
“This tax was an attack on America’s ability to attract and retain the high-skilled talent that strengthens our economy and helps us meet critical workforce needs,” Bonta said in a statement. “California remains open for business, open to talent, and committed to ensuring our communities have essential services — from healthcare to education — that depend on a strong, skilled workforce.”
Sorokin was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2014.
The fee, which applied to new applications from abroad, not renewals, narrowed a major pathway for legal guestworkers that is widely used by Silicon Valley tech companies, as well as hospitals and universities. The measure is one of several initiatives the Trump administration has taken over the last year to restrict legal immigration.
The H-1B visa was created in the Immigration Act of 1990 to enable U.S. employers to hire foreign workers for jobs that require specialized knowledge. Proponents view the program as a way to burnish the United States’ competitive edge by recruiting experts from India, China and other countries to innovate and create jobs in the United States. Others have raised concerns about fraud and competition with U.S. workers.
Federal law caps the number of H-1Bs issued each year at 65,000, with another 20,000 for those with advanced degrees from a U.S. university. Most workers are exempt from that limit because they are extending their visa or they work for nonprofits that are not subject to the restriction, according to a report last year from the Congressional Research Service.
In fiscal year 2023, the federal government approved more than 386,000 petitions for H-1B workers. Most were for men from India who worked in computer-related jobs, the report said. Other fields include architecture, engineering, and surveying as well as education-related jobs.
Trump issued a proclamation in September 2025 imposing the fee and citing the rising number of foreign workers in science and tech industries. White House officials reasoned that if companies badly needed new workers, they could afford to pay the higher fee.
Trump alleged that the H-1B program has been “deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.” He noted that the number of foreign-born workers in science, technology, engineering and math had soared, “resulting in a disadvantageous labor market for American citizens.”
But the states sued in December, arguing that the fee created a cost-prohibitive barrier to hiring workers in fields that require specialized experience.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also had challenged the fees in a separate lawsuit, but the court sided with the Trump administration late last year.
Proponents of the program hailed the judge’s decision Monday.
FWD.us President Todd Schulte said Trump’s fee “would have harmed American job and wage growth and hurt the quality of life of Americans.” He urged the White House to drop the plan.
“For many years we have advocated to reform, improve and expand legal pathways for immigrants with specialized skills to come to the U.S., stay and fully contribute,” Schulte said in a statement. “That, rather than an excessive fee that is undermining our talent pipeline, is the correct approach.”
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