WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A United States (US) federal judge on Monday blocked President Donald Trump from imposing a $100,000 fee on employers filing visa applications for foreign highly-skilled workers.

District Judge Leo Sorokin ruled in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic-ruled states that the move usurped taxation powers held by Congress and the fee for the H-1B visas constituted an unlawful tax.

“The substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called,” Sorokin wrote in his 42-page ruling.

“The President had no power or delegated authority to impose a tax on H-1B petitions,” he wrote.

A different federal judge upheld the $100,000 fee in December in a separate case. That ruling is currently being appealed.

That lawsuit was brought by the US Chamber of Commerce, a pro-business lobbying group, and the Association of American Universities, which represents 69 US-based research schools.

Trump announced the new H-1B visa policy in September, arguing that the system was being abused to replace American workers with people willing to work for less money.

The H-1B fee is part of a larger immigration crackdown by the Republican president, who has unleashed a massive push against migrants since returning to the White House.

The United States awards 85,000 H-1B visas per year on a lottery system. India accounts for around three-quarters of the recipients.

H-1B visa fees previously cost up to $5,000.

On Friday, another US federal judge threw out a series of restrictions placed by Trump’s administration on legal immigration following last year’s shooting of members of the National Guard by an Afghan immigrant.

District Judge John McConnell said the restrictions on processing of asylum, work permit, green card and citizen applications from nationals of 39 African, Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries were unlawful.

The restrictive policies enacted by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) “threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo,” McConnell wrote in a blistering 135-page ruling.

“USCIS’s hold on adjudications cannot be attributed to anything that these individuals did wrong; rather, it arises solely by the happenstance of their birth,” the judge said.

The Trump administration is expected to appeal the ruling.