The Donald Trump administration has landed in legal trouble over its decision to charge a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas, after being sued by higher education professionals, a group of unions, and a staffing agency.
The lawsuit filed in a federal court in San Francisco on Friday is the first big challenge to Trump’s H-1B visa plan. Justice Action Center, the Democracy Forward Foundation and South Asian American Justice Collaborative are among the plaintiffs, the New York Times reported.
Last month, Trump signed a proclamation requiring a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa applications. The White House said the visa programme had been “abused” and often harmed domestic workers, and added that the new fee would discourage companies from hiring foreign workers instead of Americans.
Most of those affected will be Indian workers, who account for roughly 70% of H-1B visas. About 3 lakh highly skilled Indians currently work in the US under this programme.
Lawsuit says Trump overstepped authority in H-1B visa fee move
Calling the move unlawful, the lawsuit alleged that Trump changed the H-1B visa programme, forcing employers to either “pay to play” or seek a “national interest” exemption, which “opens the door to selective enforcement and corruption,” according to Bloomberg.
The lawsuit said the change to the visa programme was illegal because only Congress has the power to impose taxes, not the president.
“Most fundamentally, the president has no authority to unilaterally impose fees, taxes or other mechanisms to generate revenue for the United States, nor to dictate how those funds are spent,” the lawsuit read.
“The Constitution assigns the ‘power of the purse’ to Congress, as one of its most fundamental premises. 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,” it further said.
