NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James has joined a coalition of 18 other attorneys general in suing the Trump administration to protect the H-1B visa program, which allows highly-trained immigrants to temporarily work in the United States and fill critical roles in health care, education, technology, and other fields.
In September, the administration announced that a $100,000 fee would be imposed on all new H-1B applications, a large increase over the visa’s typical fees, which have historically been just several thousand dollars. H-1B visa holders fill essential roles as teachers, nurses, doctors, researchers, engineers, and more in communities across the country.
She said the new fee “threatens to completely upend the program and make it effectively inaccessible for government and nonprofit employers who rely on H-1B visa holders to provide essential services.”
In a lawsuit filed Friday in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the coalition of state prosecutors argue that imposing this new fee is unlawful and violates the Administrative Procedure Act.
“H-1B visas allow talented doctors, nurses, teachers, and other workers to serve communities in need across our country,” said James. “The administration’s illegal attempt to ruin this program will make it harder for New Yorkers to get health care, disrupt our children’s education, and hurt our economy. I will keep fighting to stop this chaos and cruelty targeting immigrant communities.”
Since the 1950s, the United States has had a visa program that allows skilled workers to temporarily live in the U.S. and work in specialized fields. The current version of the H-1B program was created in the 1990s and allows employers to petition to hire workers in a “specialty occupation” for a maximum of six years. H-1B workers are employed in a variety of fields in both the public and private sectors, and the program plays a crucial role in filling labor shortages in medicine, education, and other highly skilled industries.
James is joining the lawsuit that includes attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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