Trump on judge striking down $100K H-1B visa fee: ‘They are giving us a very, very hard time’

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President Trump on Tuesday slammed a federal judge for striking down his proclamation that would have implemented a $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications.

“These federal judges are really giving us a hard time. It is really crazy what’s going on with the court system,” Trump told reporters in New York before boarding Air Force One. “They are giving us a very, very hard time.”

“And they shouldn’t be doing that. They are hurting our country very badly,” he added.

The president has slammed judges at all levels for creating hurdles and legal challenges to his policy agenda.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, an appointee of former President Obama, sparked the latest blowback by issuing a Monday order that blocks Trump’s six-figure H-1B visa fee.

H-1B visas allow U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialized fields, particularly in the tech industry. Recipients are lawfully admitted into the U.S. to work for three years, but they are not considered permanent residents.

Trump said the proclamation issued last September was intended to urge companies to favor American workers over their international counterparts. Though he has previously signaled the U.S. lacks talent in certain areas, justifying the need for the visas.

Sorokin on Monday called the measure “arbitrary” and “capricious.”

“The Proclamation expresses concern about the share of foreign workers filling jobs in the science and technology fields, specifically focusing on the IT sector. However, the Proclamation fails to consider or discuss these policy concerns as they pertain to other human-services sectors, such as education and healthcare,” the judge wrote.

“Therefore, the Proclamation does not provide any explanation for imposing a tax on employers in these sectors, let alone address these employers’ reliance interests on the H-1B program as it existed before the Policy,” he added.

Previous challenges to the proclamation were unsuccessful.

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Barack Obama

Donald Trump

H-1b visa fee

Judge Leo Sorokin

Obama

Trump administration

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