AG Jennings sues Trump to block exorbitant H-1B visa fees

Attorney General Kathy Jennings today joined a coalition of 19 states suing the Trump Administration over an unlawful policy imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions. The H-1B visa program, created by bipartisan Congressional majorities and signed into law by George H.W. Bush, alleviates nationwide labor shortages by allowing employers to hire highly skilled immigrants into highly specialized jobs - including teachers, physicians, nurses, and researchers.

The new fee, implemented by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), would create a costly barrier for employers, especially public sector and government employers, trying to fill these positions. Jennings and the coalition argue that the massive fee illegally exceeds Congressional authorization and intent, ignores mandatory rulemaking procedures, and exceeds the authority granted to the executive branch under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

"This is an unserious idea that threatens a deeply serious crisis," said AG Jennings. "Policies like these are why the Trump Administration has lost the public's confidence on immigration policy. Their blind crusade to demonize any and every immigrant is undermining America's economy, deepening the affordability crisis, and now further jeopardizing health care access. It's wrong, and it's illegal."

The H-1B visa program allows employers to petition for high-skilled foreign workers to temporarily fill positions in specialty occupations that require at least a bachelor's degree. Since its inception, the H-1B visa program has been continually finetuned to address critical national labor shortages without displacing American workers. In petitioning for an H-1B worker, employers must submit an application, certified by the U.S. Department of Labor, that employment of the H-1B worker will not negatively affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers. Congress limits the aggregate number of H-1B visas available each year for most private employers; the current cap is set at 65,000, with an exemption of 20,000 for individuals with a master's degree or higher.

Congressional authority limits fees to the amount necessary to sustain the agency's work. On September 19, 2025, President Trump issued a proclamation arbitrarily ordering an unprecedented $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa petitions- as much as a 10,000% increase over previous H-1B petition fees, which typically fell between roughly $1,000 and $7,600 in regulatory and statutory fees. The massive increase undermines the very purpose of the visa by making it harder to address severe labor shortages in critical fields such as education and healthcare and ultimately worsening the staffing crisis. The decree also grants the Secretary of Homeland Security broad discretion to decide which petitions are charged the fee or exempted, raising further concerns that Trump Administration could use the policy to selectively reward or punish employers based on political favor.

The $100,000 visa fee would imperil Delaware's economy by exacerbating labor shortages in core services like health care and education. For example, the United States faces a nationwide teacher shortage and in the 2024-2025 school year, 74% of school districts in the U.S. reported having trouble filling open positions, particularly in special education, physical sciences, ESL or bilingual education, and foreign languages. Educators are the third-largest occupation for H-1B visa holders, with nearly 30,000 educators on the visas, and nearly a thousand colleges and universities employ hundreds of H-1B personnel to support their research and education missions. Because K-12 schools, colleges, and universities are generally government or non-profit entities, they are incapable of absorbing an additional $100,000 for each H-1B hire.

Hospitals and other health care facilities also rely on the H-1B visa program to hire physicians, surgeons and nurses, often in low-income and working-class neighborhoods. Nearly 17,000 H-1B visas went to workers in medicine and health occupations in FY 2024, half of whom were physicians and surgeons. Without H-1B physicians, the United States faces a projected shortfall of 86,000 physicians by 2036 and will be unable to meet health care demand for older adults.

AG Jennings joins the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin in filing the lawsuit.