A coalition of unions, employers and religious groups filed a lawsuit on Friday seeking to block President Donald Trump’s bid to impose a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for highly-skilled foreign workers.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco is the first to challenge a proclamation Trump issued two weeks ago announcing the fee as the Republican president moves to further restrict immigration to the United States.

Plaintiffs include the United Auto Workers union, the American Association of University Professors, a nurse recruitment agency and several religious organisations. 

They argued that Trump’s power to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals does not allow him to override the law that created the H-1B visa programme.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, in a statement, said Trump’s administration engaged in lawful actions “discouraging companies from spamming the system and driving down American wages, while providing certainty to employers who need to bring the best talent from overseas.”

The programme allows US employers to hire foreign workers in speciality fields, and technology companies in particular rely heavily on workers who receive H-1B visas.

Critics of H-1Bs and other work visa programmes say they are often used to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labour. But business groups and major companies have said H-1Bs are a critical means to address a shortage of qualified American workers.

Employers who sponsor H-1B workers currently typically pay between $2,000 and $5,000 in fees, depending on the size of the company and other factors.

Trump’s order bars new H-1B recipients from entering the United States unless the employer sponsoring their visa has made an additional $100,000 payment. The administration has said the order does not apply to people who already hold H-1B visas or those who submitted applications before September 21.

Trump, in his unprecedented order, invoked his power under federal immigration law to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals who would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.

He said that high numbers of lower-wage workers in the H-1B program have undercut its integrity and that the programme threatens national security, including by discouraging Americans from pursuing careers in science and technology. 

He said the “large-scale replacement of American workers” through the H-1B programme threatens the country’s economic and national security.

The plaintiffs argue that Trump has no authority to alter a comprehensive statutory scheme governing the visa programme and cannot, under the US Constitution, unilaterally impose fees, taxes or other mechanisms to generate revenue for the United States, saying that power is reserved for Congress.

“The Proclamation transforms the H-1B programme into one where employers must either ‘pay to play’ or seek a ‘national interest’ exemption, which will be doled out at the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security, a system that opens the door to selective enforcement and corruption,” the lawsuit said.

The groups argue that agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security’s US Citizenship and Immigration Services and US State Department, likewise adopted new policies to implement Trump’s proclamation without following necessary rulemaking processes and without considering how “extorting exorbitant fees will stifle innovation.”

The H-1B programme offers 65,000 visas annually to employers bringing in temporary foreign workers in specialised fields, with another 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees. The visas are approved for a period of three to six years.

India was by far the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71% of approved visas, while China was a distant second at 11.7%, according to government data.

President Donald Trump urged Israel on Friday to immediately stop bombing Gaza after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a U.S. plan to end the war, but vexing issues like disarmament appeared unresolved.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel was preparing for an “immediate implementation” of the first stage of Trump’s Gaza plan for the release of Israeli hostages following Hamas’ response.

Shortly after, Israeli media reported that the country’s political echelon had instructed the military to reduce offensive activity in Gaza.

Trump said he believed Hamas had shown it was “ready for a lasting PEACE” and he put the onus on Netanyahu’s government.

“Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

”We are already in discussions on the details to be worked out.

This is not about Gaza alone, this is about long sought PEACE in the Middle East.”

Netanyahu’s office said Israel “will continue to work in full cooperation with the President and his team to end the war in accordance with the principles set out by Israel, which align with President Trump’s vision.”

BOMBING REPORTED AFTER TRUMP ANNOUNCEMENT

As Trump urged Israel to halt bombing, Residents said Israeli tanks bombarded Talateeni Street, a major artery in the heart of Gaza City, after Trump’s message to Israel to stop.

Witnesses said Israeli military planes also intensified bombing in Gaza City in the hour after Hamas issued its statement, hitting several houses in the Remal neighborhood.

The Israeli military chief of staff instructed forces in a statement to advance readiness for the implementation of the first phase of Trump’s plan, without mentioning whether there would be a reduction of military activity in Gaza.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, responded to Trump’s 20-point plan after the U.S. president gave the group until Sunday to accept or face grave consequences.

Trump, who has cast himself as the only person capable of achieving peace in Gaza, has invested significant political capital in efforts to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and left U.S. ally Israel increasingly isolated on the world stage.

Hamas response

Hamas said it was ready to release hostages held in Gaza under a peace deal proposed by Donald Trump but wanted negotiations on the details and a say in the future of the Palestinian territory.

“The movement announces its approval for the release of all hostages — living and remains — according to the exchange formula included in President Trump’s proposal,” Hamas said in a statement, adding it was ready to enter talks “to discuss the details”.

The peace plan for Gaza, presented by Trump this week and backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calls for a ceasefire, the release of hostages within 72 hours, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

In the statement, Hamas said it agreed to hand over power in Gaza to a body of Palestinian technocrats but said decisions on the territory’s long-term future would need to be discussed within a Palestinian framework “in which Hamas will participate and contribute responsibly”.

Hamas’s statement made no mention of its intentions on disarmament, a key part of the US president’s plan and a move the group has previously resisted.

Following the announcement, Mahmoud Mardawi, a senior Hamas official, told AFP the group welcomed Trump’s proposal, but that “without clear terms, criteria, and transparency, we need clarification and confirmation through a negotiated agreement”.

“The American proposal is vague, ambiguous, and lacks clarity,” Mardawi said.

Hamas had “made our position clear, and we are now waiting to see how the details of the terms will be implemented and clarified”, he added.

Gazans reaction

An AFP journalist in the Gaza Strip’s coastal area of Al-Mawasi said they heard celebratory cries of “Allahu akbar!” (God is the greatest) rise from tents housing Palestinians as news of Hamas’s response filtered through.

“The moment I read the news… my body trembled and shivered. A feeling came over me, like. ‘Oh Allah, at last relief has come to us,’” Samah Al-Hu, a displaced Palestinian in Al-Mawasi, said.

Mohammad Abu Hatab, a Palestinian in Gaza City, said he was “very happy with Hamas’s positive response and its opening of the door to new negotiations”.

“We hope, with the efforts of mediators, that the war is completely halted and our joy is fulfilled,” he told AFP.

Trump hailed the developments as a “very special day”, adding in a brief video that all sides in any Gaza talks would be “treated fairly”.

In that statement, Hamas also agreed to hand over power in Gaza to technocrats but said it would “participate and contribute responsibly” in Palestinian discussions regarding the territory’s future.

• Conservative nationalist, 64, picked to lead ruling party.
• Investors wary of spending designed to win back voters.
• Takaichi defeated moderate Koizumi, a political scion.

Japan’s ruling party picked conservative nationalist Sanae Takaichi as its new head on Saturday, putting her on course to become the country’s first female prime minister.

The Liberal Democratic Party elected Takaichi, 64, to regain trust from a public angered by rising prices and drawn to opposition groups promising big stimulus and clampdowns on foreigners.

The former internal affairs minister, a conservative nationalist with an expansionary agenda, is expected to replace Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba since the LDP is the largest in parliament.

A vote in parliament to choose a prime minister is expected to be held on October 15.

Party in crisis

The new LDP president is likely to succeed Shigeru Ishiba as leader of the world’s fourth-biggest economy because the party, which has governed Japan for almost all the postwar period, is the biggest in parliament. But this is not assured as the party and its coalition partner lost their majorities in both houses under Ishiba in the past year.

Takaichi, the only woman among the five LDP candidates, beat a challenge from the more moderate Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, who was bidding to become the country’s youngest leader in the modern era.

A former internal affairs minister with an expansionary economic agenda, Takaichi inherits a party in crisis.

Various other parties, including the fiscally expansionist Democratic Party for the People and the anti-immigration Sanseito have been steadily luring voters, especially younger ones, away from the LDP.

“Recently, I have heard harsh voices from across the country saying we don’t know what the LDP stands for anymore,” said Takaichi in her speech before the second-round vote.

“That sense of urgency drove me. I wanted to turn people’s anxieties about their daily lives and the future into hope,” she added.

Takaichi, who says her hero is Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, offered a starker vision for change than Koizumi and is potentially more disruptive.

An advocate of late premier Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” strategy to jolt the economy with aggressive spending and easy monetary policy, she has previously criticised the Bank of Japan’s interest rate increases.

Such a policy shift could spook investors worried about one of the world’s biggest debt loads.

Takaichi has also raised the possibility of redoing an investment deal with US President Donald Trump that lowered his punishing tariffs in return for Japanese taxpayer-backed investment.

Her nationalistic positions — such as her regular visits to the Yasukuni shrine to Japan’s war dead, viewed by some Asian neighbours as a symbol of its past militarism — may rile South Korea and China.

She also favours revising Japan’s pacifist postwar constitution and suggested this year that Japan could form a “quasi-security alliance” with Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by China.

If elected, Takaichi said she would travel overseas more regularly than her predecessor to spread the word that “Japan is Back!”

Takaichi is expected to hold a press conference around 0900 GMT.