A U.S. District Court judge on Monday, June 8, struck down President Donald Trump's policy imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, popular among the tech sector and universities to hire foreign skilled workers.
Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen Democratic state attorneys general, finding it constituted an unlawful tax Congress never authorized.
The states' top prosecutors, 20 in all, had challenged the fee Trump announced in September that dramatically raised the cost of obtaining the specialized visas.
Trump’s fees were part of a broader strategy to favor U.S. citizens over foreign workers, USA TODAY previously reported. The higher visa costs came amid the Trump administration's central immigration reforms and deportation crackdown, which were also the centerpieces of the president's 2024 campaign.