The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is suing the Trump administration after it placed a $100,000 fee on applications for H-1B visas.
The chamber believes the administration is violating the Immigration and Nationality Act, which governs who can enter, work, and live in the United States.
The business group, which touts itself as the “world’s largest business organization and network,” says the fee is “not only misguided policy” but also “plainly unlawful.”
“The President has significant authority over the entry of noncitizens into the United States, but that authority is bounded by statute and cannot directly contradict laws passed by Congress,” the complaint says.
“The Proclamation does precisely that: It blatantly contravenes the fees Congress
has set for the H-1B program and countermands Congress’s judgment that the program should
provide a pathway for up to 85,000 people annually to contribute their talents to the United States
for the betterment of American society,” the group added.
While the chamber praised President Donald Trump for securing the border and for “pro-growth tax reforms,” it disagreed with the fee and wanted it blocked. The group’s executive vice president, Neil Bradley, said the large new fee will make it “cost-prohibitive” for employers.
“The new $100,000 visa fee will make it cost-prohibitive for U.S. employers, especially start-ups and small and midsize businesses, to utilize the H-1B program, which was created by Congress expressly to ensure that American businesses of all sizes can access the global talent they need to grow their operations here in the U.S.,” he said.
After praising Trump for his immigration, energy, and tax reform agendas, Bradley said H-1B workers are needed to supplement the administration’s policy proposals. “To support this growth, our economy will require more workers, not fewer,” he added.
A White House spokeswoman told the Washington Post that the visa reforms were “lawful” and were “a necessary, initial, incremental step towards necessary reforms to the H-1B program.”
“President Trump promised to put American workers first, and his commonsense action on [H-1B] visas does just that by discouraging companies from spamming the system and driving down American wages, while providing certainty to employers who need to bring the best talent from overseas,” she said.
Trump also announced a new “gold” card for possible immigrants to buy U.S. residency for $1 million or $2 million if they wanted to buy it on behalf of a business. The president said there had been an “abuse” of the H-1B visa program. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick initially said the $100,000 fee would be yearly until the White House clarified it would be a one-time payment.
“The company needs to decide … is the person valuable enough to have a $100,000-a-year payment to the government, or they should head home, and they should go hire an American,” Lutnick said, adding, “all of the big companies are on board.”
Former Trump adviser Elon Musk had been fully on board with expanding the program, hoping to bring in more skilled immigrants from abroad. But the Make America Great Again movement rebelled against the idea because it would lead to more immigration.
EDITORIAL: TRUMP PROTECTS AMERICAN WORKERS WITH H-1B REFORMS
Bradley concurs with Musk that the U.S. should attract the “best and brightest” to work here.
“The president has said he wants to educate, attract, and retain the world’s best and brightest in the U.S., and the Chamber shares that goal,” he said.
