Activist First Circuit Denies Trump Stay — $100,000 H-1B Fee Blocked, Opening Floodgates for Cheap Foreign Labor Over American Workers

A three-judge panel of the radical First Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday denied the Trump administration’s emergency request to keep President Trump’s landmark $100,000 H-1B visa payment requirement in effect while the government appeals a lower court ruling that tossed it out.

The order leaves in place U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin’s June 8 decision vacating the entire policy.

Sorokin, an Obama appointee, had ruled that the fee exceeded executive authority under the Administrative Procedure Act and was unconstitutionally ultra vires.

President Trump issued Proclamation 10973 on September 19, 2025, specifically to stop the rampant abuse of the H-1B program.

The proclamation found that employers had used the system to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign labor, driving down wages and undermining economic and national security.

It required the $100,000 payment to accompany new H-1B petitions for workers outside the United States, with limited exceptions for national interest cases. DHS and State Department officials then implemented the policy through fee schedules, FAQs, and related actions.

The 20 Democrat-led states that sued, California, Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, claimed the fee would hurt their ability to staff public colleges, universities, schools, and healthcare systems.

Judge Sorokin agreed with the blue-state plaintiffs. He vacated the policy in full.

The Trump administration asked both the district court and then the First Circuit to stay that order pending appeal so the policy could remain in effect. The district court refused a full stay but granted a temporary administrative pause while the emergency motion was pending. On July 24, the First Circuit rejected the government’s request entirely.

The First Circuit panel, Chief Judge David J. Barron (Obama), Gustavo A. Gelpí (Biden), and Julie Rikelman (Biden), claimed the administration failed to make a “strong showing” it was likely to succeed on the merits.

They focused almost entirely on the claim that the $100,000 payment was an unauthorized tax-like burden requiring a clear congressional delegation, citing cases like Skinner while brushing aside the president’s broad statutory power under 8 U.S.C. §§ 1182(f) and 1185(a) to restrict the entry of aliens deemed detrimental to U.S. interests.

This is the same H-1B program The Gateway Pundit has repeatedly exposed as a scam that imports lower-paid foreign labor, often in IT and tech, to replace Americans.

Companies have taken thousands of H-1B approvals while laying off U.S. workers. The $100,000 fee was designed to force employers to value American talent instead of treating the visa system as a cheap labor pipeline.