United States President Donald Trump-led administration's new H-1B visa plan was challenged in a federal court in San Francisco on Friday. The lawsuit was filed by a coalition of unions, employers and religious groups, and seeks to block Trump's order imposing a one-time visa fee of $100,000 on H-1B applications, Reuters reported.
This is the first lawsuit to challenge the proclamation issued by Trump on the hiked visa fee, even as the US President moves to restrict immigration to the country.
The H-1B visa program allows employers in the US to hire foreign workers in specialty fields, with the technology companies relying heavily on workers who receive these visas.
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These employers who sponsor H-1B used to typically pay between $2,000 and $5,000 in fees, but Trump's order bars new visa recipients from entering US unless the employer sponsoring their visa makes a payment of $100,000.
What does the lawsuit say about Trump's order?
The plaintiffs have argued that Trump's move is unlawful and that he has changed the H-1B program. They say that the changes force employers to either “pay to play” or seek a “national interest” exemption, which further “opens the door to selective enforcement and corruption”, Bloomberg reported.
{{/usCountry}}The plaintiffs have argued that Trump's move is unlawful and that he has changed the H-1B program. They say that the changes force employers to either “pay to play” or seek a “national interest” exemption, which further “opens the door to selective enforcement and corruption”, Bloomberg reported.
{{/usCountry}}In the lawsuit, the groups said that the US President “has no authority” to impose fees, taxes or other mechanisms unilaterally to generate revenue for America. They further added that he could not “dictate how those funds are spent.”
The lawsuit said that Trump had “disregarded” limitations and “asserted power he does not have” while issuing the proclamation. “The Constitution assigns the ‘power of the purse’ to Congress, as one of its most fundamental premises,” the suit says, according to Bloomberg.
It adds that Trump “displaced a complex, Congressionally specified system for evaluating petitions and granting H-1B visas.”
The plaintiffs in the case are the United Auto Workers union, the American Association of University Professors, the Justice Action Center and the Democracy Forward Foundation on behalf the Global Nurse Force, and several religious organisations.
These groups have argued that the US federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security's US Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the State Department had adopted new policies to implement Trump's order. They said that these had not followed the necessary rulemaking processes or considered how “extorting exorbitant fees will stifle innovation”, Reuters reported.