Obama-appointed judge torpedoes Trump’s bid to protect US jobs by reforming controversial immigration policy

An Obama-appointed judge struck down President Donald Trump's immigration policy aimed at protecting American jobs by requiring a $100,000 payment for foreign workers to obtain a H-1B visa.

"These federal judges are really giving us a hard time. It's really crazy what's going on with the court system," Trump said Monday evening when asked about the ruling. "They are giving us a very, very hard time, and they shouldn't be doing it. They're hurting our country very badly."

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin of Massachusetts ruled Monday that the Trump administration lacked the authority to impose the hefty payment on employers seeking new H-1B visas, finding that the requirement amounted to a tax that only Congress has the constitutional power to impose. The administration had argued that the measure was necessary to curb abuse of the visa system and protect American workers.

Before Trump's proclamation, employers typically paid between $2,000 and $5,000 in filing fees to sponsor an H-1B worker, depending on the type of application and the size of the company. Approximately 65,000 foreign workers are issued an H-1B visa each year.

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The September proclamation stated that the visa holders undercut working Americans by artificially suppressing wages and making it difficult to attract and retain highly skilled temporary workers.

The administration found that critical science, technology, and math (STEM) fields were impacted the most by the excessive number of visas issued. 

In Monday's 42-page decision, Sorokin sided with a coalition of 20 states that challenged the proclamation creating a new $100,000 payment requirement for employers filing petitions for foreign workers under the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. employers to hire skilled foreign workers.

Sorokin rejected the administration's legal justification, finding that the Immigration and Nationality Act gives presidents broad authority over the entry of noncitizens but does not authorize them to impose taxes.

"While the Executive has broad discretion over the admission and exclusion of aliens, ... that discretion is not boundless," Sorokin wrote, referring to previous case law.

Sorokin concluded that the payment functioned as a tax rather than a permissible immigration restriction.

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"The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress," Sorokin wrote.

He further rejected the administration's argument that the payment requirement was simply another immigration restriction, bluntly stating: "Taxes are not 'restrictions.'"

Beyond the constitutional concerns, Sorokin also found that federal agencies violated the Administrative Procedure Act by implementing the policy without notice-and-comment rule making and concluded that the agencies exceeded their statutory authority.

As a remedy, Sorokin declared the policy unlawful and vacated it in its entirety.

Sorokin, a Yale and Columbia Law School graduate, was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2013 and confirmed by the Senate in 2014. Last year, Sorokin was the fourth judge to issue a nationwide injunction blocking Trump's executive order seeking to limit birthright citizenship. He ruled that the policy is likely unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. That dispute has since reached the Supreme Court, and a ruling is expected in the coming weeks.

The administration is expected to appeal Sorokin's decision, setting up another legal battle over the scope of presidential authority in immigration matters and the limits of executive power.

"President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America’s best interests, and that is exactly what he did," White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital. "The H-1B program has been abused for decades, and President Trump finally took action to fix it. A federal judge in Washington already upheld a nearly identical order, and the Administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal."

In a separate challenge filed in December 2025, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington declined to block the policy after dismissing claims from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that the additional H-1B charge violated federal immigration law.

Democratic leaders and critics of the policy applauded Sorokin's ruling, touting the decision as a victory.

"We won our case against the Trump administration for trying to destroy the H-1B visa program," New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote on X.

"Thousands with these visas serve New Yorkers as doctors, teachers, and other skilled workers," James added. "I'll keep fighting to protect them and our immigrant communities."

"Today’s decision from a U.S. District Judge to vacate the policy implementing the Presidential Proclamation mandating a $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applicants—a 5,000% increase in some cases—came at a critical time for Alaska’s schools that are in the midst of hiring before next fall," wrote Republican Maine Sen. Lisa Murkowski on X.

"Many school districts in rural and remote parts of the state rely on the H-1B visa program to bring quality teachers to their communities," said Murkowski. "In Alaska, this isn’t a partisan issue: the state legislature unanimously passed a resolution last month urging the federal government to waive the fee for educators." 

"Maryland’s schools, hospitals, and universities depend on highly skilled professionals from around the world to keep their doors open and their communities served," said Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown in a press release. "This ruling makes clear that the federal government cannot impose unlawful financial barriers that make it harder to recruit the teachers, doctors, researchers, nurses, and other essential workers Marylanders rely on every day."

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