Trump’s ₹85 lakh H-1B visa fee struck down, White House vows legal fight

The White House defended President Donald Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee and vowed to appeal after a federal judge struck down the policy, ruling that the administration exceeded its authority and imposed an unlawful tax.

“President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America’s best interests, and that is exactly what he did,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told IANS.

“The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it. A federal judge in Washington already upheld a nearly identical order, and the Administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal,” she said in response to a question.

The response came hours after US District Judge Leo T. Sorokin of Massachusetts invalidated the policy and vacated it nationwide.

In a sharply worded ruling, Sorokin concluded that the administration had imposed a tax without congressional authorisation.

“The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” the judge wrote. “There are no statutory powers authorizing Defendants to implement a $100,000 tax on H-1B petitions.”

The court rejected the administration's argument that broad presidential powers under immigration law permitted the fee.

“While ‘the Executive has broad discretion over the admission and exclusion of aliens...that discretion is not boundless,’” Sorokin wrote. He added that such authority “may not transgress constitutional limitations” or “the statutory authority conferred by Congress.”

The ruling specifically challenged the legal foundation of the proclamation signed by Trump in September 2025, which required employers filing new H-1B petitions to pay an additional $100,000.

The judge further found that immigration statutes cited by the administration did not give the President authority to impose such a charge.

“These considerations preclude reading INA § 212(f) and 215(a) as delegating Congress’s exclusive power to tax,” Sorokin wrote.

The court also criticised the agencies that implemented the policy, finding they had bypassed required rulemaking procedures and failed to adequately justify the fee.

At the conclusion of the ruling, Sorokin declared that “The Policy implementing the Proclamation is declared unlawful and is VACATED in its entirety.”

The White House did not indicate when it would file an appeal, but administration officials signalled they intend to continue defending the measure as part of Trump's broader effort to tighten oversight of the H-1B programme.