H1B

U.S. President Donald Trump discusses renovations to the Lincoln Reflecting Pool and makes an announcement on “Beautiful, Clean Coal” on Thursday in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C. A federal judge on Monday ruled that a H-1B visa fee imposed by Trump is illegal. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo

June 8 (UPI) — A federal judge ruled Monday that a $100,000 visa fee for U.S.companies seeking highly skilled workers from other countries is illegal. This voids the requirement set by President Donald Trump by a presidential proclamation in September.

Judge Leo Sorokin said the policy violated the U.S. Constitution and the federal Administrative Procedure Act and that only Congress has the authority to change federal immigration policy to require the fee. The Trump administration says it will appeal the ruling.

“The president lacked the power or delegated authority to impose a tax on H-1B petitions,” Sorokin said in his decision, CNN reported.

A group of Democratic state attorneys brought the case in December. Letitia James, New York attorney general, was among them.

“Every day, thousands of people with H-1B visas serve New Yorkers as doctors, teachers and other skilled workers,” James said Monday, CNBC reported. “Today, a court put an end to this administration’s illegal attempt to destroy this critical program and the many jobs it makes possible.”

Before Trump’s proclamation, H-1B visa fees ranged from $2,000 to $5,000 per application, CNBC reported. These visas are meant for foreign professionals who hold at least a bachelor’s degree to work in more specialized fields. They’re valid for three years and can be renewed for another three years after that. The New York Times reported that about 85,000 of such visas are available annually, and that they are often used by universities and companies in the fields of technology, finance and medicine.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement to CNBC after the ruling that “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.” She said the visa program “has been abused for decades.”

BOSTON — A federal judge on Monday struck down the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, contradicting an earlier federal court ruling upholding the fee hike.

The administration announced the much-higher fee as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs.

But U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston sided with 20 states and struck down the visa policy, concluding that the executive branch exceeded its authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.

“The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” Sorokin wrote.

H-1B visas are meant for high-skill jobs that are difficult to find American workers to fill. Deep-pocketed technology companies are the biggest users, with nearly three-quarters of approvals going to workers from India. The states argued that using the H-1B program to fill vacancies for much-needed doctors and teachers was already difficult before the higher fee.

Most H-1B visa applications cost several thousand dollars before the announced increase set off a wave of panic among confused employers, students and workers in the United States and abroad and led to several lawsuits, including in Boston.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also sued, in federal court in Washington, D.C., and has appealed a denial of a summary judgment against the fee hike. That left the higher fee in effect, at least until September, when it is scheduled to expire. Monday’s ruling is also a summary judgment, to the opposite effect. Still another lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco, by religious groups and labor organizations, setting up the possibility of divided rulings in three appellate court circuits.

The states argued that the policy impedes their ability to hire primary and secondary school educators and to staff public colleges and universities, will stymie academic research and will lead to a decline in medical workers.

“The Proclamation makes various overtures to domestic economic policy goals to justify the unprecedented $100,000 fee,” plaintiffs wrote in their complaint. “But the Proclamation gives no indication that the President gave any consideration to how the fee would affect Plaintiff States and their ability to provide their residents access to education, healthcare, and other basic human needs.”

A Department of Homeland Security statement said the agency disagrees with “this blatant judicial activism dismantling President Trump’s historic efforts for immigration reform.”

“Under President Trump and Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, our immigration system is being reformed to serve American citizens, American workers, and American families and to preserve our national identity — not to rapidly import foreigners who take American jobs, commit crimes, burden our welfare system, and erode our cultural and social fabric.”

Casey writes for the Associated Press.