There are judges and there are judges whose name has become a shorthand for judicial resistance to the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, and Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg delivered another ruling this morning, blocking the administration’s visa policy targeting foreign officials accused of suppressing Americans’ protected speech, on the same Friday that a federal judge in Boston ruled against the Trump administration’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee as an unauthorized tax, which is either a coincidence of judicial timing or the specific condition produced when an administration implements a large number of policies simultaneously.
Boasberg temporarily blocked the visa policy, confirmed by Fox News at 8:39 a.m. EDT today, which was designed to target foreign officials from countries that restrict American citizens’ speech or online activity, revoking or denying visas as a diplomatic enforcement mechanism. The policy is part of a broader administration effort to use visa authority as leverage over foreign governments whose domestic censorship affects Americans. Boasberg, who has ruled against the administration on multiple immigration matters this year, issued the temporary block while the legal challenge proceeds, which is the sequence that has defined his relationship with the administration’s immigration policy portfolio.
The Boston ruling, confirmed in the same Fox News report, struck down the administration’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee, which had been increased from the typical $2,000 to $5,000 range and was designed to make it significantly more expensive for companies to hire foreign workers over American citizens. The judge ruled it was an unauthorized tax, which is the constitutional distinction between a fee, which the executive branch can impose, and a tax, which requires congressional authorization. Congress did not authorize a $100,000 H-1B fee. The administration is appealing.
Boasberg’s name has appeared in administration communications, congressional hearings, and conservative media with a frequency that reflects both the volume of his rulings and the administration’s frustration with them. He blocked deportation flights earlier this year, producing a confrontation with the administration that escalated to the House of Representatives. He is blocking again today.
Two judicial setbacks before 9 a.m. on a Friday when there is also a war, new tariffs, an Iranian warning about Trump family properties, and Bahrain is sounding missile alarms.
When two federal judges issue rulings against the administration on the same Friday morning while Iran is threatening Trump-branded hotels, what exactly is the administration managing?
Sources
Fox News: Boasberg delivers fresh immigration setback to Trump in free-speech clash
