An Obama-appointed federal judge has struck down President Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa payment requirement, the latest court blockade against the administration’s push to stop American workers from being replaced by cheaper foreign labor.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin of Massachusetts declared the policy unlawful and vacated it in its entirety.
Fox News reported Sorokin is the same judge who previously blocked President Trump’s birthright citizenship order.
JUST IN: A federal judge has ruled Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee is an unauthorized tax on businesses and must be vacated. https://t.co/bQXFTaiMmK pic.twitter.com/g5HTy9Cu0X
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) June 8, 2026
The case turned on a single legal question: can the executive branch attach a six-figure price tag to H-1B petitions without Congress signing off?
Sorokin said no.
His order reasoned that taxes are not restrictions, found the policy imposed a tax on H-1B petitions without any congressional delegation, and wiped the rule off the books.
The court order said the administration’s reading of the statute had no meaningful limit:
Defendants’ contrary interpretation regarding the scope of the President’s power under INA § 212(f) offers no perceivable limits. Their position that § 212(f) allows the President to impose any tax so long as it connects to a “restriction” on the “entry of aliens” deviates from the text of the statute.
Congress authorized the President to “impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate” when he finds that the entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.” 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f). This phrase limits the President’s authority to “restrictions.” Taxes are not “restrictions.”
Notably, Congress did not authorize the President to “impose on the entry of aliens any conceivable tax, penalty, or condition.”
For these reasons, the Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress.
The administration was trying to answer a problem President Trump has described for years: American workers being pushed aside while companies import cheaper labor.
The White House made the abuse argument this way:
The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor. The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security.
Some employers, using practices now widely adopted by entire sectors, have abused the H-1B statute and its regulations to artificially suppress wages, resulting in a disadvantageous labor market for American citizens, while at the same time making it more difficult to attract and retain the highest skilled subset of temporary workers, with the largest impact seen in critical science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.
ADVERTISEMENTInformation technology (IT) firms in particular have prominently manipulated the H-1B system, significantly harming American workers in computer-related fields.
The proclamation did not hide the point.
It was designed to force employers to pay a serious price before using the H-1B pipeline.
A later White House FAQ narrowed the payment rule and described the next steps:
On Friday, September 19, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation, “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers,” that took an important, initial, and incremental step to reform the H-1B visa program to curb abuses and protect American workers.
This Proclamation:
Requires a $100,000 payment to accompany any new H-1B visa petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025. This includes the 2026 lottery, and any other H-1B petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025.
Authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State to coordinate to take all necessary and appropriate action to implement this Proclamation.
This Proclamation does not:
Apply to any previously issued H-1B visas, or any petitions submitted prior to 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025.
Does not change any payments or fees required to be submitted in connection with any H-1B renewals. The fee is a one-time fee on submission of a new H-1B petition.
ADVERTISEMENT
That is the heart of the fight.
The administration is trying to make it expensive to undercut American labor, and the program’s defenders ran to court to stop it.
The White House is not treating Sorokin’s ruling as the end of the road.
According to Fox News, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said President Trump had clear legal authority, that the H-1B program had been abused for decades, and that the administration is confident the decision will be reversed on appeal.
Reuters reports – "A federal judge on Monday struck down a $100,000 fee that U.S. President Donald Trump imposed on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, concluding that it constituted an unlawful tax that Congress never authorized. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin… pic.twitter.com/QusSxu9eUH
— ANI (@ANI) June 8, 2026
For workers who have watched jobs handed to lower-paid visa holders, the policy was a rare attempt to put a real cost on the practice.
An Obama appointee just erased it.
The appeal is where this gets decided, and the administration says it likes its odds.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
What are your thoughts?
