The legal drama continues
If you're paying attention to the tech world and immigration, you know the vibes have been off regarding the H-1B visa program. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland put a stop to President Trump’s attempt to slap a massive $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas. The judge basically said that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department skipped the mandatory rule-making steps before dropping this massive cost on employers.
This isn't the first time the policy has caught a case. A federal judge in Boston blocked the fee back in June, and an appeals court stood by that decision in July. Despite the pushback, the Department of Homeland Security tried to move toward a permanent $103,000 fee in August.
Why it matters
The H-1B program is a massive deal for tech companies and other industries that need highly specialized talent from around the globe. Usually, these visas come with fees between $2,000 and $5,000. Trump’s order, which he originally said was necessary because he believed businesses were abusing the program to replace Americans with cheaper labor, was a total shock to the system.
While the administration claims the power to set these fees to protect U.S. interests, a coalition of unions, employers, and nonprofits—represented by the legal group Democracy Forward—is fighting back. With the U.S. Chamber of Commerce also involved in a separate lawsuit, the plot thickens as the courts try to figure out if the president can actually make these moves unilaterally. For now, the $100,000 price tag is on ice. Real talk, this is a major win for companies who were lowkey panicking about their hiring pipelines.
