Arizona AG Kris Mayes joins 18 states in suing Trump administration for new visa petitions fee

PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes joined a coalition of 18 other states on Friday in suing the Trump administration for a policy that imposes a fee on new H-1B visa petitions.

H-1B visas allow employers in the United States to hire foreign national workers for jobs that require specialized skills.

On Sept. 19, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation that put an $100,000 fee on the visa petitions. Typically, employers would expect to pay between $960 to $7,595 for an H-1B visa petition. The Department of Homeland Security then implemented the policy through a series of written documents affecting any application filed after Sept. 21.

“This illegal, excessive fee is disastrous for thousands of Arizona employees and will have a devastating effect on our rural school districts, our growing semiconductor industry and Arizona’s entire economy.” Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a press release. “At a time when this economy is already tough enough, the Trump administration wants to shackle schools and businesses already struggling to hire.” 

With this move, Arizona has now joined 32 multistate lawsuits challenging Trump administration policies.

Why is AG Kris Mayes joining the suit against the new visa petitions fee?

There are multiple public school systems in Arizona that rely on teachers and staff who are H-1B visa holders. They include Deer Valley Unified School District, Nogales Unified School District, Douglas Unified School District, Toltec School District No. 22, Buckeye Elementary School District No. 33 and Tuba City Unified School District.

In addition, Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University have more than 260 employees who are in the U.S. on H-1B visas.

Across the U.S., there are nearly 30,000 educators who are on H-1B visas and nearly a thousand colleges and universities who employ hundreds of visa holders.

Outside the education realm, there are also a number of companies in Arizona who sponsored employees on H-1B visas, including Intel with 2,045, ASML with 251 and TSMC with 67. In 2024, there were nearly 17,000 H-1B visa holders working in health care, half of those were physicians and surgeons.

Mayes said that the new fee would create “a costly barrier” for employers who are trying to fill positions.

In the lawsuit, the coalition alleges that the policy violates the law by imposing a large fee that is outside the boundaries authorized by Congress and contradicts Congress’ intentions when they created the H-1B program.

In addition, the attorneys general claim that the implementation of the fee bypassed the required regulatory process and oversteps the authority that the executive branch is given under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

There were also concerns raised about the fact that the new policy grants the Secretary of Homeland Security the ability to determine which petitions will be subject to the fee and which well be exempt.

Congress limits the number of available H-1B visas to 65,000 for private employers, there is an exemption for 20,000 people who have a master’s degree or higher. On top of that, employers have to submit an application that is certified by the U.S. Department of Labor and proves the H-1B workers will not negatively affect wages and working conditions for U.S. workers.

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