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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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The Trump administration’s H-1B visa reforms leave the process “susceptible to manipulation,” a nonprofit organization that advocates for American workers told Newsweek.
Why It Matters
The reforms, which include a $100,000 supplemental fee for many new H-1B applications and a revised selection process favoring higher-paid positions, are part of broader Republican efforts to tighten oversight of the visa program. The administration says the changes are intended to curb abuse and encourage employers to hire U.S. workers first.
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What To Know
Kevin Lynn, executive director of the Institute for Sound Public Policy and founder of U.S. Tech Workers, which has advocated for H-1B reforms, said in a blog post that large companies could potentially skirt the rules by adjusting job descriptions or inflating salaries on paper to secure visas for foreign workers, potentially disadvantaging smaller businesses that cannot play the same game.
"The revised selection process, which still relies on a weighted lottery rather than a true wage-ranking system, continues to invite manipulation," Lynn told Newsweek.
Under the revised selection process plan shared by DHS, H-1B petitions that offer higher salaries or involve “higher-skilled” roles would be given priority if applications exceed the annual cap of 85,000 visas.
The move to a wage-based selection system reflects a long-standing concern among H-1B critics that some tech companies hire foreign workers primarily because they can pay lower wages than they would to U.S.-born employees, particularly in STEM fields. DHS’s proposed system would prioritize applicants based on wage levels or brackets, rather than a combination of salary and skill.
"The proposed rule change is inadequate to correct the flaws of the current random lottery system. While it claims to favor higher-wage petitions, it still relies on randomness as the primary determinant of visa allocation," Lynn wrote in a blog post.
"The H-1B program is structurally flawed. It was designed to give employers leverage over foreign workers by tethering their immigration status to their job. This dynamic suppresses wages and distorts labor competition. No administrative reform can make the program fair because the imbalance of power is inherent to its design. Congress should phase out or repeal the H-1B program and rely instead on the O-1 visa, which already provides a mechanism for admitting truly exceptional talent without numerical caps," Lynn told Newsweek.
Several lawsuits have already been filed challenging the fee and selection changes, with universities, labor groups, and business organizations arguing that the administration exceeded its authority and that the new rules are arbitrary. Smaller companies have also expressed concern that the added costs and complexity could slow hiring.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a right-wing think tank, has welcomed the reforms. The CIS argues the weighted selection process better targets higher-paid positions and reduces incentives for using H-1B visas for low-wage placements. Proponents say that the changes will help align the visa program with economic priorities and protect American workers.
"Replacing the purely random selection process with one that prioritizes higher wages and higher skill levels will help restore the program’s original intent, discourage abuse, and protect both U.S. and foreign workers from unfair labor practices," Elizabeth Jacobs, Director of Regulatory Affairs and Policy at the CIS, wrote.
The Economic Innovation Group told Newsweek that under the DHS proposal, a lower-paid worker in one field could have better chances than a higher-paid worker in another. For example, an exercise physiologist in Florida earning $55,000 might have a better shot at an H-1B visa than a software developer in San Francisco making $155,000.
What People Are Saying
Kevin Lynn, executive director of the Institute for Sound Public Policy told Newsweek: The reforms will likely have uneven effects. The $100,000 fee, if enforced, could disrupt the business model of large Indian IT outsourcing firms that recruit directly from overseas. Yet even these entities will adapt, either by exploiting visa loopholes, relying more heavily on student-to-H-1B conversions, or shifting toward the L-1 visa category, which remains unaffected by the new fee. In practice, the rule will not materially alter labor market dynamics or protect American workers from displacement.
Taylor Rogers, a spokeswoman for the White House, told Newsweek: “President Trump promised to put American workers first, and this commonsense action does just that by discouraging companies from spamming the system and driving down American wages. It also gives certainty to American businesses who actually want to bring high-skilled workers into our great country but have been trampled on by abuses of the system.”
**Doug Rand, a former DHS official, said in a statement shared with Newsweek: "**DHS wants to put a thumb on the scale for H-1B workers being offered higher salaries. If you’re offered a roughly top-quartile salary for your particular occupation and metro area, then you effectively get four lottery tickets. Next-lowest quartile gets three tickets. The losers of this system would be the hundreds of thousands of recently graduated international students from U.S. universities–the very “best and brightest” that even Trump claims to embrace–who are embarking on their careers and have a legitimate reason to command a less-than-top salary."
The Economic Innovation Group's Connor O'Brien told Newsweek: "The goal of the H-1B lottery reform is the right one: prioritizing higher-paid workers. But as written, the rule doesn't actually do that. It prioritizes older, lower-skilled workers in areas like event planning, public relations, and acupuncture over aerospace engineers, surgeons, and AI researchers. The proposed rule would lead to even more visas going to infamous IT outsourcing companies. Replacing the lottery with an age-adjusted salary ranking would select the highest-skilled applicants and yield the biggest benefits to the United States."
What Happens Next
With lawsuits pending and agency guidance still evolving, employers and visa applicants are watching closely to see how the rules will be implemented and enforced.
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