In an ongoing lawsuit over a $100,000 fee to hire skilled workers from foreign countries, as imposed by the Donald Trump administration, the administration told the court that only 70 employees have paid the fee so far since it was imposed in September.
The number is not huge and in fact is fairly low, which is why this cannot be considered a revenue-generating measure for the government and therefore does not require congressional approval, Justice Department lawyer Tiberius Davis said at a court hearing.The lawsuit revolves around whether charging fees for the visa program is legal. Global Nurse Force, a nurse staffing company, among other plaintiffs, filed the lawsuit claiming the fees make it difficult for small employers to hire through the Specialized Occupation Visa Program.
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They called the fees arbitrary and capricious, and argued in their lawsuit that Congress only allows immigration fees to cover the cost of administering the programs. They said this should have come after notice-and-comment procedures, but a government lawyer said the fees were notified through a presidential proclamation and not an executive order, and therefore no comment period was needed. This lawsuit in Oakland is separate from the one filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in which a federal judge has already denied an injunction.
Lawyers in the Oakland case and in the chamber’s appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down President Donald Trump’s global tariff system reinforces challenges to H-1B fees. Bloomberg reported that the justices found that the framers of the Constitution gave Congress, not the executive branch, taxing powers. Visa fees have become a controversial issue as Silicon Valley companies rely heavily on the H-1B visa program to hire from outside the country. The move was intended to reduce this dependence and instead open up job opportunities for Americans.
