Judge rejects bid to overturn Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa application fee

• A federal judge upheld the Trump administration's ability to slap a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications.
• The Trump administration says the fee aims to curb immigration and boost US worker hiring.
• Major tech companies and universities may appeal, as H-1B visas are key for skilled hiring.

A federal judge upheld the Trump administration's ability to place a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications.

US District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, DC, said in the opinion that President Donald Trump's order made on September 19 to hike visa fees "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."

"Here, Congress has decided to delegate broad power to the President to restrict entry of noncitizens '[w]henever the President finds that" such entry 'would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,'" wrote Howell.

"To be clear, this decision in favor of defendants is not to dismiss or discount the past and ongoing contributions of H-1B workers to the American economy that plaintiffs highlight," Howell added. "The effects of the H-1B program on the American economy or national security, whether positive or negative, are simply not at issue in this case."

The US Chamber of Commerce and Association of American Universities, which challenged the policy in court, can appeal the decision.

In the initial court filing asking for an immediate injunction on the visa fee hike, the plaintiffs argued that presidential powers do not sweep so far as to permit the president to "rewrite a visa program by imposing an unprecedented fee on domestic employers, and purporting to deny entry only when those domestic employers are unable or unwilling to pay."

Trump's presidential proclamation in September, said to prevent system "abuses" and to encourage companies to train American workers, sent major tech companies scrambling as they raced to decipher the new rules.

The Trump administration later clarified that the fee hike only applies to new visas.

H-1B visas have become a mainstay of the tech industry, enabling companies to hire highly skilled workers.