Federal Judge Kills Trump's $100,000 H-1B Fee

A Boston court rules the six-figure charge was an illegal tax. Thousands of foreign workers and the employers who need them are watching what happens next.

WASHINGTON — Eighty-five payments. That’s how many employers had paid Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee in the five months since it took effect — a number so low it tells its own story about what the fee was actually designed to do.

On Sunday, a federal judge in Boston confirmed what immigration lawyers, university counsel, and hospital HR departments had been arguing since September: the fee was never legal to begin with.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin struck down the $100,000 charge in a 42-page ruling, finding that President Trump had imposed a de facto tax on H-1B visa petitions without any authorization from Congress — and without following the basic rule-making procedures the law requires.