Why Trump Is Charging a $100,000 Fee for H-1B Visas

After focusing on immigration enforcement and ramping up deportations for much of his second term, US President Donald Trump has turned to overhauling the H-1B visa program, a cornerstone of the employment-based immigration system that allows US companies to hire college-educated foreign workers for specialized occupations. As of Sept. 21, new applications for H-1B visas carry a $100,000 fee.

Introduced in 1990, the H-1B visa program is one of a series of US immigration initiatives created during the 20th century to address specific labor shortages. Others facilitated the employment of temporary farm workers from Mexico during World War II, sheepherders mainly from Spain in the 1950s, and nurses, many of whom came from the Philippines, in the 1990s. Today, employers can apply to bring in foreigners to fill temporary agricultural jobs under the H-2A program and workers for other kinds of temporary jobs, including seasonal work, under the H-2B program.