A second federal judge on Wednesday halted President Trump’s unprecedented $100,000 charge on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers.
US District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California, found that US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department had not completed the required rule-making procedures before putting the fee into effect.
Gilliam, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, granted a request from a coalition of labor unions, employers and nonprofit organizations. The groups are seeking to block enforcement of the fee while their lawsuit, filed in October, proceeds.
The fee had already been temporarily suspended in June by a federal judge in Boston in a separate lawsuit brought by 20 states. An appeals court based in Boston declined in July to lift that ruling.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security proposed making a similar charge permanent in August, setting the amount at roughly $103,000. Once finalized, that measure is also expected to face a legal challenge.
That case, however, would raise different questions from the current lawsuits, which focus largely on whether the president had the legal authority to impose the H-1B fee without congressional action.
Trump’s $100,000 charge was initially scheduled to expire on September 21, but the president recently extended it for an additional year.
The White House did not immediately comment on the judge’s decision.
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Democracy Forward, a progressive legal organization representing the plaintiffs, welcomed the ruling. “Today’s decision … protects a system that was thrown into chaos overnight,” said Steve Bressler, an attorney with the group.
The US Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying organization, has brought a third lawsuit against the fee. The chamber is appealing an earlier ruling that rejected its argument that Trump lacked the authority to impose the charge.
The H-1B visa program enables US companies to employ foreign professionals in specialty occupations. Technology firms are among the biggest users of the program.
Federal rules make 65,000 H-1B visas available each year, along with 20,000 additional visas for workers holding advanced degrees. The visas are generally approved for periods ranging from three to six years.
Trump’s order dramatically increased the cost of an H-1B visa, which had typically involved fees ranging from about $2,000 to $5,000, depending on the circumstances.
In defending the fee, Trump cited federal immigration law granting the president authority to restrict the entry of foreign nationals whose presence could harm US interests.
The president has argued that companies have misused the H-1B system and displaced American employees with lower-paid foreign workers.
The Trump administration has also introduced tougher screening for H-1B applicants and proposed changing the selection system to give preference to candidates with higher skills and salaries.