• A federal judge ruled the $100,000 fee on H-1B visas unlawful.
• The ruling was made by Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston.
• The fee was part of Trump's efforts to tighten immigration controls.
• The fee discouraged applications, with only 85 payments recorded.
• Legal challenges to the fee have been ongoing since it was announced.

A federal judge has ruled that the $100,000 fee imposed on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers by President Donald Trump is unlawful. US District Judge Leo Sorokin stated that the fee constitutes an unlawful tax that Congress never authorized, in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging the fee announced in September.

The ruling concluded that Trump's imposition of the fee "exceeds the scope of the President's discretionary authority" under US immigration law. Previously, employers seeking an H-1B visa paid about $2,000 to $5,000, making the new fee significantly burdensome. According to the court filings, the increase had discouraged H-1B visa requests, with just 85 payments made by mid-February, reflecting a dramatic fall in applications from major tech companies, according to Reuters, India Times, and Business Insider.

Judge Sorokin emphasized that the nature of the fee qualifies it as a tax, which requires congressional authorization to impose. His decision is a significant legal setback for the Trump administration amid ongoing appeals and legal battles over immigration policies. This ruling highlights the ongoing scrutiny of Trump's immigration measures, especially concerning the H-1B program designed to attract skilled foreign talent to the US, according to India Times, South China Morning Post, and Al Jazeera.