US President Donald Trump’s decision to increase the fee for worker visa or H-1B visa to USD 100,000 seems to have hit the first roadblock in the form of a federal lawsuit that was filed on Friday by a coalition of health care providers, religious groups, university professors and others to stop the plan, saying it has “thrown employers, workers and federal agencies into chaos.”
Filed in the US District Court in San Francisco, the lawsuit said the H-1B programme is a critical procedure to hiring healthcare workers and educators; drives innovation and economic growth in the US; and allows employers to fill jobs in specialised fields.
“Without relief, hospitals will lose medical staff, churches will lose pastors, classrooms will lose teachers, and industries across the country risk losing key innovators,” Democracy Forward Foundation and Justice Action Centre said in a press release.
Calling the new fee “Trump’s latest anti-immigration power grab”, it asks the court to immediately block the order and restore predictability for employers and workers.
Trump had signed a proclamation on September 19 with a visa fee hike, saying the H-1B visa program “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labour.”
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The changes were slated to go into effect in 36 hours, which caused panic for employers, who instructed their workers to return to the US immediately.
Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, said the high USD 100,000 fee will discourage the best and brightest minds from bringing life-saving research to the US.
Mike Miller, Region 6 Director of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, said Trump’s plan “prioritizes wealth and connections over scientific acumen and diligence.”
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, contends the “exorbitant fee” invites corruption and is illegal. The group said Trump can’t rewrite the programme overnight or levy new taxes by executive order.
The Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection, which are named as defendants along with Trump and the State Department, did not immediately respond.
The H-1B visa programme was created by Congress to attract highly skilled workers from around the world to fill jobs that tech companies find difficult to fill. About a third of H-1B workers are nurses, teachers, physicians, scholars, priests and pastors, according to the lawsuit.
It’s a lottery-based system in which overseas workers are often ready to work for as little as USD 60,000 annually, well below the USD 100,000-plus salaries typically paid to US technology workers.
This year, Seattle-based Amazon was the top recipient of H-1B visas with more than 10,000 awarded, followed by Tata Consultancy, Microsoft, Apple and Google. Geographically, California has the highest number of H-1B workers.
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