California Attorney General Rob Bonta Friday joined 19 other attorneys general in suing the Trump administration after the U.S. began imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications.
The 20 states, led by Democratic attorneys general, claimed the new mandated fee for the H-1B visa, which allows employers to hire highly skilled workers, is illegal because it went into effect without authorization from Congress and without legally required notice and comment process.
“This massive fee exceeded the Department of Homeland Security’s authority,” Bonta said in a news conference Friday, saying the Trump administration does not have the power or legal authority to “rewrite immigration law.”
“No president can ignore the co-equal branch of government of Congress, ignore the Constitution or ignore the law,” Bonta added.
Bonta said the $100,000 visa fee is devastating to California amid labor shortage in a number of sectors, including education and health care.
According to the California Department of Justice, nearly 17,000 people worked in medicine and health with the H-1B visas in the 2024 fiscal year, with half of them being physicians and surgeons.
“If hospitals and clinics must either pay an extra $100,000 per doctor to leave positions unfilled, the consequences are clear: fewer providers, longer wait times, reduced access to care and growing health disparities,” Bonta said.
Without physicians who work under the H-1B visas, the United States overall will experience a shortfall of 86,000 physicians in 10 years, according to Bonta’s office.
But the Trump administration, along with President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” supporters have accused tech companies, most of which are located in California, of abusing the system to look for cheaper hires.
The White House said, after Pres. Trump announced the proclamation to increase the visa fee in September, the new policy aims to “protect American jobs.”
Prior to Trump’s proclamation, an employer filing for an initial H-1B petition would pay between $960 to $7,595 in regulatory and statutory fees.
The new lawsuit will be filed in federal court in Massachusetts .
Bonta said Friday’s lawsuit is California’s 49th suit against the Trump administration this year.
NBC Los Angeles reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor.
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