Nineteen Democratic attorneys general, led by California and Massachusetts, reportedly filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the Trump administration’s new $100,000 fee on H-1B visas — a key part of President Trump’s effort to reform an immigration system he says has been abused for decades at the expense of American workers.
The lawsuit claims the fee exceeds the actual administrative cost of processing H-1B applications and violates both the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, announcing the legal action, argued the rule would place “illegal” financial burdens on public employers and worsen labor shortages in certain fields.
“As the world’s fourth largest economy, California knows that when skilled talent from around the world joins our workforce, it drives our state forward,” Bonta said. “President Trump’s illegal $100,000 H-1B visa fee creates unnecessary — and illegal — financial burdens on California public employers and other providers of vital services.”
Bonta accused the Trump administration of arbitrarily raising costs: “The Trump administration thinks it can raise costs on a whim, but the law says otherwise.”
The H-1B visa program allows 65,000 new visas annually, with an additional 20,000 made available for foreign nationals who graduate with advanced degrees from U.S. universities. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, enough petitions have already been received to meet both caps for fiscal year 2026.
The White House, however, rejected Democrats’ arguments outright. Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers stated that the policy is a direct fulfillment of President Trump’s promise to protect American workers from corporate abuse of the 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,” Rogers said.
She added that the administration’s actions are “lawful” and represent “an initial, incremental step toward necessary reforms.”
The administration’s position was reinforced by a September presidential proclamation, which declared that the H-1B system “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.” The proclamation stated that companies have used loopholes “to artificially suppress wages,” harming U.S. workers and making it harder for companies to attract truly top-tier foreign talent — particularly in STEM fields vital to national security and economic competitiveness.
The lawsuit also comes amid intensifying national debate over immigration policy. Recently, the Trump administration halted immigration processing for individuals from 19 “high-risk” countries following the fatal shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. The suspect — an Afghan national — had entered the country through a refugee program created after the chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, deportation operations continue to expand, and the Supreme Court is preparing to take up a historic case that will determine whether birthright citizenship, long considered automatic under the 14th Amendment, is constitutionally required.
As Democrats race to block the latest H-1B reform, the administration maintains it will continue pursuing policies that strengthen the labor market for Americans — even if it means confronting states determined to preserve a system that critics say corporations have exploited for far too long.
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