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President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Friday requiring companies to pay a $100,000 fee to obtain H-1B worker visas.
The announcement aligns with the Trump administration’s intensified efforts to enforce stricter immigration policies, including widespread raids and deportations across the country.
Signing the proclamation represents a victory for immigration hardliners in Congress, but it’s likely to unsettle tech leaders who are in need of qualified foreign workers.
The H-1B visa initiative, introduced into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, allows highly skilled foreign workers to be employed temporarily in the U.S. Leading technology firms have utilized this program to recruit international talent. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data, Amazon topped the list with over 10,000 approvals, followed by Tata Consultancy Services with 5,500, while Microsoft and Meta each had over 5,000 approvals.
Trump said on Friday that tech companies would be pleased with the changes.
“I think they’re going to be very happy. Everyone’s going to be happy,” Trump said.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, described the measure as “almost certainly illegal and likely to be overturned in court,” on social media.
“The authority granted to the government by Congress is limited to setting fees to cover the expenses of processing the application. There is no legislative power to levy fees intended to curtail visa usage,” Reichlin-Melnick explained.
Bloomberg Law first reported on Trump’s plans to sign the proclamation on Friday.
Every fiscal year, Congress restricts the issuance to 65,000 new visas, with an additional 20,000 allocated for individuals holding a master’s degree or higher, and further exemptions available for universities and research entities.
During his first term, Trump sought to enact rules that would have dramatically limited the issuing of new skilled-worker visas, citing the economic downturn precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic and an effort to preserve jobs. The rules were ultimately struck down by a federal court.
More recently, Trump defended the H-1B visa program before taking office in comments to the New York Post in December, telling the outlet, “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.”
