On Monday, federal Judge Leo Sorokin struck down the H-1B visa fee of $100,000, ruling that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act. The Trump administration’s fee was intended to encourage the employment of Americans while discouraging employers from seeking out specialized foreign labor. Under the policy, individual companies would have had to pay $100,000 to the government annually in addition to paying the wages of the foreign laborer.
Obama appointee Sorokin explained that this fee was a tax that Congress had not given the executive branch the authority to impose. The H-1B policy was created in 1990, and applications had a fee of around $2,000 to $5,000 each before Trump’s Sept. 19, 2025 proclamation.
When Trump initially introduced this fee, he argued that visas must no longer be handed out without merit. After the fee was struck down, he commented, “It’s really crazy what’s going on with the court system,” he said. “They’re hurting our country very badly.”
Several U.S. companies and tech giants utilize the H-1B visa system to recruit talented and specialized labor. However, recent findings in Texas reveal there is more to the story. Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas announced an investigation into the H-1B visa program after reporting that businesses suspected of fraud had engaged in illegal activity by setting up fake companies with websites that advertised products and services to Texans to fraudulently sponsor H-1B visas.
“Any criminal who attempts to scam the H-1B visa program and use ‘ghost offices’ or other fraudulent ploys should be prepared to face the full force of the law,” said Paxton. He explained that this tactic takes opportunities away from Texans.
In a recent podcast from the Center for Immigration Studies, Mahvash Siddiqui, a U.S. Foreign Service officer, shared her experiences as a consular officer witnessing systematic exploitation of the H-1B visa program in Chennai, India. Chennai is one of the world’s greatest visa-issuing locations in the world.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) H-1B Specialty Occupations guidelines say that if an applicant possesses the prerequisite of a bachelor’s degree or higher, or other forms of educational criteria, they are eligible for the visa. However, Siddiqui shared that 80 to 90 percent of H-1B visa applications involved fraud, whether that was through the creation of fake degrees, transcripts, or marriage licenses. “Fraud and bribery is normalized in India,” said Siddiqui.
When her team attempted to confront the fraud, they were ultimately shut down by their bosses in Delhi, who faced political pressure from the government. She reported that the visa consultancies were often owned by Indian politicians at the sub-national level.
Siddiqui explained it’s all too common for a worker hired by a staffing company to be sent to the U.S. to wait for an assignment, which can often include low-paying jobs, rather than getting set up with a specialized job.
Through the H-1B visa program, 20 million people have come to the U.S. since 1990, which is the most significant amount in any 20-year period since the founding of America.
The trend of foreign workers occupying STEM positions at the expense of American workers can be explained in part by the STEM shortage myth. This myth contends that there will be an insufficient number of American workers to fill STEM positions.
This notion is not backed by evidence. Americans with degrees from elite institutions are often left on the sidelines struggling to secure work, while workers with shady visas take their opportunities.
The Trump administration is seeking to appeal Sorokin’s ruling.
