Twenty states sued the US federal government Monday for raising the cost of H-1b visas to $100,000, Newsweek reported Wednesday. The lawsuit, led by the states of California and Massachusetts, was filed in Federal District Court in Massachusetts. All the state attorneys general involved are Democrats.
Prang, the state attorney general, said in a statement that the $100,000 H-1b visa fee far exceeded the legal requirement that the fee be used only to cover processing costs. “No president has the power to rewrite immigration law,” Bunta stressed
“You might as well try hiring Americans,” vice president Vance said on social media Wednesday in response to the 20-state lawsuit. He added: “Many in our country are angry about immigration fraud, but Democrats, along with some Republicans, are preventing us from solving these problems. Don’t be pessimistic, fight back.”
The H-1B visa is a temporary work visa for the US, usually valid for three years, and is mainly used by US technology companies to attract highly educated foreign talent. US tech giants such as Amazon have been accused by Republicans of abusing the programme by abandoning us-based workers in favour of cheaper labour, Politico said. In September, Donald Trump signed a notice raising the visa fee from a few thousand dollars to $100,000, a move he said was aimed at ensuring the US brought in highly skilled people who could not be replaced by Americans.