On October 3, “a broad coalition of groups filed the first lawsuit challenging President Trump’s imposition of a $100,000 fee on applications for H-1B visas, which are used by tech firms, research institutions, and other organizations to hire immigrant workers and researchers with various specialized skills. If allowed to stand, the fee would effectively end most H-1B visas, by making them prohibitively expensive,” notes a law professor at Reason:
The case is called Global Nurse Force v. Trump. The plaintiffs are a broad coalition including the Global Nurse Force (which supplies nurses to health care providers), education groups (e.g. – the American Association of University Professors), religious organizations, and labor unions.
The challengers argue that Trump’s
abrupt imposition of the $100,000 Requirement is unlawful. The President has no authority to unilaterally alter the comprehensive statutory scheme created by Congress. Most fundamentally, the President has no authority to unilaterally impose fees, taxes or other mechanisms to generate revenue for the United States, nor to dictate how those funds are spent. The Constitution assigns the “power of the purse” to Congress, as one of its most fundamental premises. Here, the President disregarded those limitations, asserted power he does not have, and displaced a complex, Congressionally specified system for evaluating petitions and granting H-1B visas. The Proclamation transforms the H-1B program into one where employers must either “pay to play” or seek a “national interest” exemption, which will be doled out at the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security, a system that opens the door to selective enforcement and corruption.
Making H1-B visas more costly will prevent colleges from hiring foreigners to do useful research. As the American Council on Education explains, “Tens of thousands of H-1B visa holders are employed by colleges and universities, contributing to groundbreaking research, offering specialized training programs, providing medical services, and supporting the infrastructure necessary for these institutions’ operations.”
As noted earlier, restrictions on H1-B visas can “cause economic harm. A doctor says curbing H1-B visas ‘will be absolutely devastating in the medical field. 30% of residents are international medical graduates and 10,000 of 43,000 residency spots are filled by doctors with H1-B visas. Previously the H-1B fee was below $5,000. No hospital will pay a $100,000 fee for a $55,000 resident salary.’”
