The Department of Homeland Security argued in its petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit against a federal judge’s order halting the $100,000 H-1B visa fee that it is not a tax and not an unauthorized tax. Judge Leo Sorokin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts dropped the charges in a June 8 decision granting the request of 20 Democratic-led states challenging the visa policy. The judge found that this was an intrusion on Congress’s prerogative to tax and a violation of the separation of powers. He agreed to stay his decision on June 12, pending the First Circuit’s decision on the government’s motion to stay the appeal.DHS told an appeals court in Boston that the fee imposed to restrict the flow of H-1B visas falls within its broad authority under federal immigration law, Bloomberg reported. The government argued that the one-time application fee is not properly considered a tax, but even if it were a tax, the President would have the proper authority to order it.DHS said, “Abuse of the H-1B program is a national security threat because it depresses American wages and discourages Americans from pursuing careers in science and technology, thereby risking American leadership in these fields by replacing them with aliens with foreign loyalties.”The visa fee was a part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to limit immigration to the US. The President said that companies abuse the H-1B program by bringing in college-educated foreign workers for jobs that can be done by American workers. The department asked the court to allow it to impose the fee pending its appeal.“Every day more and more aliens may file petitions and enter the country despite the President’s determination that their entry would be harmful,” the department said in its court filing. “And even if the defendants ultimately win on appeal, it will be difficult to revoke those visas and deport foreigners who don’t pay.”