A lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s new $100,000 fee on H-1B visas describes the kinds of harms it could have on health care, education and religious groups that seek to employ foreign talent to complement their workforce.

The complaint, filed by a mix of employers and unions Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, details the economic fallout as a central part of its lawsuit that argues the Trump administration overstepped congressional authority.

Trump’s Sept. 19 proclamation says the new $100,000 fee on companies for every new H-1B visa application is necessary to reverse “systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security.”

But the proclamation focuses on information technology and software, along with science, technology, engineering and math fields. The plaintiffs, represented by attorneys with Justice Action Center, Democracy Forward Foundation and other groups, say the proclamation’s harms will be more widespread.

Global Nurse Force, a Laguna Beach, Calif., says it relies on foreign talent to hire more than 10,000 nurses at more than 175 hospitals in its global network, amid a U.S. nursing shortage that is expected to get worse as the baby boomer generation ages.

A health system in Louisiana had selected 200 nurses and GNF was preparing visa applications to fill the positions over the next two quarters, the lawsuit states. But, like many of GNF’s clients, the health system can’t afford the $100,000 fee and are at a loss of how to fill the spots.

“If the $100,000 Requirement remains in effect, it would force Global Nurse Force to close its U.S.-based operations, which would translate into a loss of millions of dollars in revenue,” the lawsuit states. “Without access to international nurses, their clients will be forced to reduce capacity in ICUs, emergency rooms and surgical units. Wait times will increase and patient outcomes will worsen.”

The Global Village Academy Collaborative, an educational institution based in Thornton, Colo., draws on H-1Bs visas for foreign teachers to instruct students, who receive second language instruction in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Russian or French for half the school day, then English instruction for the other half, the lawsuit states.

The collaborative hired 11 world language teachers through H-1B petitions in the 2025-26 term, the lawsuit states, but couldn’t afford that under the fee hike.

“As a result, GVAC would have to take significant, drastic measures to offset such a cost, like cutting down on current staffing or placing a cap on enrollment, which would have a vast impact on GVAC’s funding,” the lawsuit says.

Three groups in the complaint represent entities in the religious sector harmed by restrictions on hiring foreign religious workers: The Society of the Divine Word’s Chicago Province, the Fathers of St. Charles, and Church of the Hill, D/B/A Algood First Baptist.

The Society of the Divine Word’s Chicago Province, for example, without access to H-1B visas given their high cost, “will be unable to continue providing critical language- and culturally-accessible religious services to its congregants” in the Chicago area, the lawsuit.

The Fathers of St. Charles, which keeps its provincial office in Oak Park, Ill., says its missionary focus for the past 25 years has been with the poorest of migrants and “it is critical for the members of Fathers of St. Charles to be able to perform all sacramental and liturgical activities in a linguistically and culturally appropriate manner for the communities they serve,” the lawsuit says.

Although R-1 visas are available to foreign workers seeking to enter the United States as a minister or in a religious vocation or occupation, the lawsuit says they’re insufficient.

Limitations include being unable to maintain R-1 status for up to five years, a lengthy backlog in the path for obtaining a green card, the lawsuit says.

Society of the Divine Word’s Chicago Province, the lawsuit says, has at least eight priests working on an R-1 visa, but planned to petition for H-1B visa for each of them prior to the end of their R-1 status. But the lawsuit says with the new fees on H-1B visas, that won’t be an option.

A missionary would need to leave the United States and wait abroad for at least one year before he could receive another R-1 visa, which “cause significant disruption and severely impact the parishes where these priests perform vital services,” the lawsuit says.

With significant emphasis placed on the tech industry, the lawsuit maintains the H-1B visa supports economic growth, pointing to a statistic that found H-1B visa holders from 1990 to 2010 caused 30 percent to 50 percent of all productivity growth in the U.S. economy.

The lawsuit also criticizes Trump’s proclamation for ignoring other benefits, including the consumed goods and services and taxes paid by H-1B workers and asserts cutting off the ability of U.S. companies to hire these workers “will likely push some employers to outsource their work to other countries.”

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