President Donald Trump’s administration is renewing its push to charge companies more than $100,000 for each foreign worker they hire through the H-1B visa program, a system widely used by US employers, especially in tech, to bring in skilled workers from abroad. The administration tried something similar last year, but a federal court blocked it.
This time, officials are taking a different approach. Instead of using a presidential proclamation to restrict entry for certain foreign workers, the Department of Homeland Security has proposed a formal regulation that would create an additional fee of exactly $103,265 for new H-1B petitions subject to the program’s annual cap.
Because the new plan relies on the standard federal rulemaking process rather than executive action alone, it could prove harder to challenge in court and may have a broader reach, affecting not only workers applying from abroad but potentially also foreign nationals already living and working in the United States who need to renew or change their visa status.
Critics warn the steep fee could make it far more expensive for American companies to recruit international talent, while supporters argue it would push employers to prioritize hiring US workers instead.
To read the full story and understand what comes next, check out the original article at El Tiempo.
Image: jamesfischer, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).