Judge sides with Trump over his $100K visa fee
Source: Politico
12/23/2025 10:06 PM EST
A federal judge Tuesday upheld the Trump administration’s authority to attach a six-figure charge on visas for high-skilled workers. D.C. District Judge Beryl Howell said that President Donald Trump’s decision in September conditioning access to an H-1B visa on a $100,000 payment to the government was within the power Congress delegated to the executive branch under immigration law.
“The lawfulness of the Proclamation and its implementation rests on a straightforward reading of congressional statutes giving the President broad authority to regulate entry into the United States for immigrants and nonimmigrants alike,” Howell, an appointee of Barack Obama, wrote in a 56-page decision.
She said she was compelled to rule in the administration’s favor due to how Congress had written two parts of the Immigration and Nationality Act: “Congress could have, but did not, impose the limit on presidential authority that plaintiffs’ urge.”
The ruling is the first stress test of the policy and a victory for the White House, which is facing additional legal challenges in at least two other courts.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/23/judge-ruling-trump-h1b-visa-fee-00705670
Link to RULING (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.285953/gov.uscourts.dcd.285953.54.0.pdf
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But I have to admit that I find myself torn: I actually want corporations to pay more taxes. I think tariffs can be a targeted way of doing that, but totally disagree with how this administration is doing it of course.
But as someone with a kid in college on-track to get a degree in a high-skilled profession I can actually get onboard with a policy that encourages companies to hire people already in America over importing labor from overseas to fill these positions, and $100,000.00 is quite an incentive to develop talent here.
