The United States Trump administration has been blocked from imposing a $100,000-fee on businesses that employ highly skilled foreign workers, after a federal ruling out of Boston that the measure constituted an unauthorised tax.
The proposal, made in September 2025, would have introduced a charge aimed at applications for the country’s H-1B visa programme, which for over 35 years has allowed US-headquartered firms to hire foreign specialists in certain fields. The annual number of H-1B visas issued is capped at 85,000.
A federal judge blocked President Trump’s effort to impose a $100,000 fee on employers seeking to hire foreign workers for specialized roles, ruling the policy was an unauthorized tax that required congressional approval. pic.twitter.com/NTpRuBWxo9
— KolHaolam (@KolHaolam) June 8, 2026
A score of US states had challenged the Trump plan to bring in a $100,000-levy or “penalty” (amounting to a 20-to-50 fold increase on existing rates). In court, they argued that the huge hike in the fee would severely impact recruitment at academic and research institutions and medical facilities, putting a price and a disincentive on foreign expertise.
President Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been a long-term critic of the H-1B programme, which he claims suffers “abuses” that “present a national security threat by discouraging Americans from pursuing careers in science and technology, risking American leadership in these fields.”
TRUMP ON H-1B SETBACK
— Rahul Shivshankar (@RShivshankar) June 9, 2026
US President Donald J Trump says, "These federal judges are really giving us a hard time. It's really crazy what's going on with the court system… They're hurting our country very badly." pic.twitter.com/K2yEswhQNQ
With around two-thirds of H-1B visas snapped up by specialists in computing, the move would represent a significant potential financial burden for America’s highly international tech sector. But members of the Trump team, such as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, have claimed that Silicon Valley supports the move. Whether or not that’s the case, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin’s decision that the increased visa cost is a tax that Trump does not have the power to impose has let them off the hook for now.
Experts immediately predicted that Trump would appeal the decision. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers later said in a statement that the administration is confident Sorokin’s order will be reversed, saying: “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.”
The H-1B visa is not the only area of immigration policy in which Trump wants changes. In spring 2025, he expanded the B1 and B2 visa bond to apply to citizens of 50 countries, imposing a deposit of up to $15,000 on their visits to the States. In addition, in December 2025, he officially launched a new fast-tracked immigration scheme offering high-net-worth foreign nationals a direct route to United States residency and eventual citizenship in exchange for a minimum payment of $1 million.
