{"id":353072,"date":"2026-06-09T13:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353072\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T13:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:12:17","slug":"federal-judge-rules-100000-h-1b-fee-unlawful-for-employers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353072\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge rules $100,000 H-1B fee unlawful for employers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"California<\/p>\n

California Attorney General Rob Bonta applauds as Chinua Rhodes, left, a Sacramento City Unified School District board member, speaks at the March for the Dream honoring Martin Luther King Jr. at Sacramento City College on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. Bonta led a multistate coalition of attorneys general in a December 2025 lawsuit challenging the Trump administration\u2019s H-1B policy.<\/p>\n

Ren\u00e9e C. Byer<\/p>\n

rbyer@sacbee.com<\/p>\n

A Trump-era increase to employer applicant fees for the country\u2019s H-1B visa program to $100,000 is unlawful, a federal judge ruled on Monday.<\/p>\n

It was a victory for California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led a multistate coalition of attorneys general in a December 2025 lawsuit<\/a> challenging the policy. They argued the increase stymied the program, which allows employers to apply to hire skilled foreign workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tax was an attack on America\u2019s ability to attract and retain the high-skilled talent that strengthens our economy and helps us meet critical workforce needs,\u201d Bonta said, in a statement released Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The hiked-up fee was a significant increase for employers\u2019 applications. The fees were previously set between $960 and $7,595 per application, according to the complaint filed by the attorneys general.<\/p>\n

In his order, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorkin noted that those amounts represented regulatory and statutory fees. The fee imposed by the Trump administration, he wrote, was tantamount to a tax, which may only be levied by Congress.<\/p>\n

The policy, enacted in September, was part of President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to boost the labor market for American citizens. The visa program had been abused by employers to \u201cartificially suppress wages,\u201d the president said in his proclamation.<\/a><\/p>\n

The lawsuit challenged those claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress has repeatedly addressed concerns about misuse of the H-1B program and impact on U.S. workers by enhancing enforcement, increasing penalties, and requiring employers to pay specific fees to hire an H-1B worker,\u201d the attorneys general wrote in their complaint.<\/p>\n

The policy could have hit California\u2019s economy harder than others around the country. San Jose and San Francisco are among the top three cities<\/a> for H-1B petitioners, according to a report by the American Immigration Council.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s ruling ensures that California employers can continue to recruit foreign employees for roles that require specialized skills, Bonta said. Those positions include nurses, teachers, physicians and researchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia remains open for business, open to talent, and committed to ensuring our communities have essential services \u2014 from healthcare to education \u2014 that depend on a strong, skilled workforce,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Attorney General Rob Bonta applauds as Chinua Rhodes, left, a Sacramento City Unified School District board member,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-353072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}