A lawsuit asking the U.S. federal court to halt the Donald Trump administration's move to raise the H-1B professional visa fee by 100 times has been filed.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 3rd (local time), healthcare staffing firm "Global Nurse Force" and health-related labor unions filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. This is the first time in the United States that a lawsuit has been filed seeking to stop the Trump administration's hike in H-1B visa fees.
They argued that President Trump does not have the authority to unilaterally raise visa fees without congressional approval and therefore must withdraw the increase. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse, they said, and Trump, despite lacking such authority, unreasonably raised visa fees.
They also pointed out that if visa fees are to be newly set, they must be imposed either by Congress or through a formal process that includes public comment, but the Trump administration skipped normal procedures and violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
Introduced in 1990, the H-1B visa has mainly been used to hire foreign professionals in fields such as technology, engineering and medicine. Participants in "MAGA" ("Make America Great Again"), Trump's core support base, have criticized the program for giving U.S. corporations a pretext to hire foreign workers over Americans.
Last month, the Trump administration announced that it would raise the H-1B fee 100-fold, from the current $1,000 to $100,000 (140 million won).
Beyond this case, the Trump administration has been embroiled in more than 400 lawsuits related to major policies it has pursued. In most of the cases, plaintiffs argue that President Trump abused his authority and encroached on Congress' powers.