Late tonight, Massachusetts and 19 other states sued the regime over Dear Leader’s diktat that employers pay $100,000 fee for every skilled foreign worker they bring into the country via the H-1B visa program.

In their suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, the states charge the new fee violates federal law - of the sort actually passed by Congress rather than simply dictated through imperial fiat - because it was put into place without any rational explanation or chance to raise questions and so is "arbitrary and capricious."

Although the regime has focused on alleged foreign rapscallions stealing American jobs in high tech, the states say the fee would harm large swaths of other sectors, from higher education to primary and secondary education, healthcare and medical training by making it impossible to pay for skilled workers that America simply is not churning out enough of. For example, in Massachusetts:

Public schools within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts rely on H1-B visas to fill critical positions. The availability of H-1B visas ensures that Massachusetts public schools can provide adequate educational programming for their students and meet the needs of their students. ...

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts's public colleges and universities frequently rely on H-1B visa holders to fill faculty, researcher, and staff roles, including through the hiring of medical residents who attend the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. The University of Massachusetts currently sponsors more than 340 H-1B faculty, staff, and researchers, and intends to hire additional staff, faculty, and researchers through the H-1B program. However, the fee imposed under the Policy will make doing so cost prohibitive. Eliminating access to H-1B faculty, staff, and researchers for the University of Massachusetts would cause immediate institutional harm given a much narrowed applicant pool which would render it all the more difficult for the University of Massachusetts to employ individuals necessary to support the University's research activities and educational offerings.

In addition to being arbitrary and capricious, the ukase creates yet another way for a regime that has already declared goals of crushing its enemies to play favorites, the states - all of which have Democratic attorneys general - charge:

Subsection 1(c) grants the Secretary of Homeland Security broad discretion to waive the $100,000 fee for any "individual alien," "company," or "industry" where such waiver is "in the national interest." Concerningly, neither the Proclamation nor any subsequent materials issued by DHS provide rules, standards, clarification, or guidance for what constitutes "national interest" or how such exceptions may be applied. In light of the importance of H-1B visas to many employers, such exemptions - or the withholding of exemptions - could easily be used to reward behavior favoring the administration and to coerce compliance with the administration's agenda. The administration's efforts to shape the behavior of public universities, research facilities, and schools has already been the subject of considerable litigation.