Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump's $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee as an Unconstitutional Tax

A federal judge on Monday struck down the Trump administration's $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, ruling that the six-figure charge functioned as an unconstitutional tax that the executive branch had no authority to impose. The decision, issued by U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in the District of Massachusetts, blocks one of the signature immigration measures President Trump announced in September 2025.

In his ruling, Sorokin wrote that the payment could not be justified as a penalty because it was "not 'punishment for an unlawful act or omission.'" Instead, he concluded, it operated as a tax — and under the Constitution, only Congress can authorize or delegate the power to tax. "The mere fact that Defendants followed a presidential directive does not grant them free rein" to sidestep the law, the judge wrote.

The court also found that the administration had violated the Administrative Procedure Act by skipping the required "notice-and-comment" rulemaking process and failing to offer adequate justification for the fee. The lawsuit was brought by 20 states led by California, which named Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin as a defendant and argued that the charge would choke off the supply of skilled foreign workers their universities, hospitals and technology firms depend on.

The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to hire highly skilled foreign workers, often in science, engineering and medicine. Before Trump's order, employers typically paid between roughly $960 and $7,595 in associated fees. The new $100,000 charge represented an enormous increase, and its scale drew immediate alarm from the technology industry and academic institutions. As of February 15, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had collected $8.5 million from just 85 fee payments — a figure critics said showed how sharply the policy had curtailed applications.

The ruling is likely to be appealed, and it adds to a growing list of court defeats for executive actions that judges have found exceeded the president's authority. Congress, meanwhile, is on track to pass the fewest bills in 50 years, leaving the courts as the primary check on a White House that has increasingly acted alone on matters lawmakers traditionally control. For employers who had frozen hiring plans amid the uncertainty, the decision offered immediate relief, though many warned they would wait to see whether higher courts let it stand before resuming recruitment abroad.