Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee is ‘unlawful’, US court rules

New Delhi ( The Indian View Team) : A US court on Monday struck down $100,000 fee announced by US President Donald Trump on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, declaring that the application charge was unlawful and must be invalidated.

US District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston made the ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging the fee announced by Trump in September last year.

Sorokin, during the ruling, said the fee was not a penalty but a tax that the Republican president lacked any authorization from Congress to issue and that the US State Department and US Citizenship and Immigration Services could not implement.

The judge argued that the policy exceeded Trump’s authority and would be detrimental in key public sectors, including education and healthcare.“The court finds that the policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” Sorokin said in the ruling.