A federal judge has struck down a Trump administration policy that would have imposed a one-time $100,000 charge on companies seeking to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program, ruling that the fee exceeded the authority granted by Congress.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, who serves on the federal bench in Massachusetts, invalidated the administration’s effort to require employers to pay the substantial fee when sponsoring foreign H-1B workers. Sorokin concluded that the measure effectively functioned as a tax and therefore could not be imposed without explicit congressional approval.

In his ruling, the judge wrote, “… the Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” Sorokin wrote:

Accordingly, the Court VACATES the Policy materials implementing the Proclamation’s $100,000 payment requirement. In addition to vacatur, Plaintiffs seek a “judicial declaration that the Policy is unlawful in violation of the APA and the Constitution.” Defendants’ only objection to this requested relief is that “declaratory judgment alone would not redress Plaintiffs’ alleged injuries because . . . that judgment would not affect the Proclamation nor would it enjoin any future action.” But this concern is not applicable here, where the Court has also ordered vacatur of the challenged agency action. Therefore, the Court issues declaratory judgment. [Emphasis added]

The H-1B program permits American employers to recruit foreign professionals, most of them from India, for skilled white-collar positions in the United States. Each year, hundreds of thousands of such workers are employed through the visa category.

Critics of the program have long argued that major corporations use H-1B visas to reduce labor costs by replacing American workers with lower-paid foreign employees. Various studies have pointed to the program as a significant cost-saving mechanism for large companies.

For years, Breitbart News has reported on cases involving American professionals who lost their jobs and were subsequently required to train foreign workers brought in through the H-1B system before leaving their positions.

At any given time, approximately 650,000 H-1B visa holders are employed in the United States, according to estimates cited in the report.

President Trump announced the $100,000 fee last year as part of an effort to discourage businesses from relying heavily on foreign labor. The proposal immediately drew legal challenges from business groups and corporate organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Supporters of the fee argued that it would make it more expensive for companies to replace American workers with lower-cost foreign labor. However, some corporate executives and visa recipients reportedly believed the policy contained loopholes that could have reduced its impact and allowed employers to continue utilizing the program with limited disruption.

{Matzav.com}