Judge points to Trump's authority in challenge to H-1B visa hike

Source: Roll Call

Posted December 19, 2025 at 3:44pm


A federal judge had tough questions during a hearing Friday for attorneys representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s new $100,000 fee hike on companies seeking to hire foreign workers on H-1B visas. Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, an Obama appointee, sounded skeptical of the business organization’s request to either block enforcement of the presidential proclamation against its members or strike it down completely.

Trump signaled upon signing the proclamation the new policy was an attempt to encourage the hiring of American graduates from U.S. universities for high-skilled jobs and address national security concerns of hiring foreign workers for industries that engage in sensitive technologies.

Howell raised issues of a president’s broad authority under immigration law and cited an example of a company that had opted to hire an American worker instead of a foreign national with the new fee structure in place. Howell said Congress gave presidents authority “with a red ribbon on it” to block entry on foreign nationals, including the capacity to “impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions to be appropriate.”

Howell said it’s “pretty hard to see limiting principles” in provisions in the law and questioned whether the chamber should redirect its efforts from litigation to lobbying Congress. “The Chamber is one the bigger lobbying outfits, possibly if not in the world, then in this country,” Howell said. “They know how to go to Congress and get Congress to modify statues.”

Read more: https://rollcall.com/2025/12/19/judge-points-to-trumps-authority-in-challenge-to-h-1b-visa-hike/