The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced Thursday it is suing the Trump administration over its $100,000 fee for H-1B visas. The group said it was launching the lawsuit because the fee makes it prohibitively expensive for businesses to use the program.
Neil Bradley, the executive vice president and the chief policy officer of the chamber, said the visa program was created by Congress to “ensure that American businesses of all sizes can access the global talent they need to grow their operations.”
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Bradley said he and the Chamber of Commerce have backed many of President Donald Trump’s economic plans. However, this one goes against his goals.
“The Chamber and our members have actively backed these proposals to attract more investment in America. To support this growth, our economy will require more workers, not fewer,” he wrote in a press release.
Bradley continued by saying that Trump has given the U.S. a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to reform immigration policy.
Why did Trump add the fee?
In September, Trump signed an executive order creating the fee. He said the reasoning was to stop American companies from hiring labor outside the U.S.
“If you’re going to train somebody, you’re gonna train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land,” Trump said. “Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs.”
Foreign skilled workers earn an average annual salary of $119,000, and this new plan nearly doubles that cost.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration developed the new plan after consulting various companies, although he did not specify which ones.
Big Tech companies, many of which donated to Trump’s campaign, use the visa program extensively. Tech billionaire-turned-former Trump adviser Elon Musk and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella were both former H1-B holders.
