Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump Visa Rules

Inside Higher Ed

Elizabeth Redden

December 3, 2020

A federal judge on Tuesday set aside two Trump administration rules that narrowed eligibility for H-1B skilled worker visas and substantially increased wages for many H-1B holders. Colleges joined with businesses in suing to roll back the rules, which the Trump administration promulgated without normal notice-and-comment procedures, citing emergency circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White ruled that the government failed to demonstrate that the rise in domestic unemployment caused by the COVID pandemic justified skipping normal rule-making processes, concluding that the administration “failed to show there was good cause to dispense with the rational and thoughtful discourse that is provided by the APA’s [Administrative Procedures Act’s] notice and comment requirements.”