The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has refused to pause a ruling that struck down President Donald Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee while an appeal proceeds.
The appeals court denied the stay request on July 24, 2026, finding the administration had failed to make a strong showing of a likelihood of success on the merits.
Both the district court and the appeals court found that the presidential proclamation exceeded executive authority granted by Congress under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The court noted that no provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act “references the imposition of the kind of payment requirement at issue.”
The federal government is therefore prohibited from collecting the $100,000 fee while the administration’s merits appeal continues through the courts.
On July 30, 2026, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions advanced the nomination of Keith Sonderling to be Secretary of Labor.
Sonderling has been serving as acting secretary since April 2026, following the resignation of former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
An attorney by training, Sonderling previously served as a Commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and in the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune included NLRB nominees James Macy and David Prouty in a package of seventy-four nominations scheduled for an en bloc vote during the legislative week beginning August 3, 2026.
Because executive branch nominations require confirmation by a simple majority, not the sixty-vote threshold required for most legislation, the package is widely expected to be approved.
The NLRB also withdrew its lawsuit this week challenging a New York law that had granted the state’s Public Employment Relations Board jurisdiction over private-sector labour matters.
The withdrawal came after a separate federal court in New York permanently enjoined the state from enforcing the law, which was found to be preempted by the National Labor Relations Act.
NLRB General Counsel Crystal Carey stated that “attempts to override NLRB jurisdiction through state law are clearly preempted by federal labor law.”
On the immigration front, work authorisation through temporary protected status expired this week for individuals from Haiti and Syria, with further expirations scheduled for Somalia, Burma, South Sudan, and Ethiopia in early August 2026.
Congresswoman Sylvia R. Garcia has introduced a discharge petition to force a House floor vote on the American Dream and Promise Act of 2025, with 210 of the required 218 signatures secured so far, including support from two Republicans.