Washington Attorney General Nick Brown on Friday joined a coalition of states in a lawsuit challenging a new federal policy that places a $100,000 fee on certain H-1B visa petitions, calling the move unlawful and harmful to employers and public institutions, according to Brown’s office.
The lawsuit targets a Trump administration policy affecting the H-1B visa program, which allows employers to hire highly skilled foreign workers on a temporary basis for specialty occupations.
Those jobs include physicians, researchers, nurses and other professionals often used to address labor shortages across the country.
“The H-1B visa program helps bring talented people with critical skillsets to Washington, keeping our state on the cutting edge in highly specialized areas of education and research,” Brown said. “The federal government can’t arbitrarily turn these visas into an extortion racket to punish employers and institutions the President does not like.”
In Washington state, nearly 500 H-1B visa holders work across more than 30 state agencies, public universities and public colleges.
Until now, employers typically paid between $960 and $7,595 in required regulatory and statutory fees for H-1B petitions.
The new $100,000 fee for certain new applications represents a sharp increase that state officials say would fall heavily on public institutions, particularly colleges and universities.
Brown’s office said the higher costs could force schools to scale back or cancel academic programs if they are unable to recruit needed faculty or researchers.
University officials have warned that some courses could be dropped, laboratories left unused and research projects delayed or moved out of state.
The impact would be most pronounced in fields such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and medicine, areas where competition for talent is already intense.
The added expense comes as Washington is also facing a budget shortfall, making it harder for public institutions to absorb new federal costs.
The lawsuit argues that Congress has long shaped the H-1B program to balance employers’ labor needs with protections for U.S. workers.
Over time, lawmakers have strengthened enforcement and increased penalties to prevent misuse of the visa system while preserving its role in filling critical gaps in the workforce.
According to the complaint, the new fee raises additional concerns because of how it was created and who decides when it applies.
The Department of Homeland Security granted the secretary broad authority to determine which petitions must pay the fee and which qualify for exemptions.
The states argue that this discretion opens the door to uneven or selective enforcement against employers or institutions disfavored by the administration.
Brown and the coalition allege that the policy violates both the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution.
In the past, DHS set H-1B-related fees through the APA’s required notice-and-comment process and tied those fees to the actual cost of administering the program.
The lawsuit contends the $100,000 fee was imposed without that process and was not based on the agency’s operating costs.
It also argues that the administration failed to fully consider how the fee would affect government agencies, nonprofit organizations and the delivery of essential public services.
The case is being led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell.
Attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin have also joined the lawsuit.
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