SAN FRANCISCO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Friday that he and 19 other states are suing the Trump administration over its policy to hike fees on new H-1B visa petitions to $100,000.

Bonta claimed that the increases for the skilled-worker visa are illegal because they exceed what Congress has authorized and undermine its intent in establishing the program. All of the states joining the lawsuit have Democratic attorneys general.

“No presidential administration can rewrite immigration law,” Bonta said at a press conference in San Francisco. “No president can ignore the co-equal branch of government of Congress, ignore the Constitution, or ignore the law.”

The largest users of the visas are major tech companies bringing in high-skilled foreign workers, which MAGA Republicans have accused of abusing the program to pass over Americans for cheaper labor. But Bonta argued the fees will also worsen labor shortages within other important sectors to the state economy by making it more difficult to fill spots for physicians, researchers, teachers, nurses and public service employees.

He also warned that the $100,000 payment, which President Donald Trump issued via presidential proclamation in September, could be applied selectively at the discretion of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

High-skilled immigration and H-1Bs in particular have previously been the source of infighting between Trump’s populist supporters and Silicon Valley allies, concerned about the impact on global talent attraction.

The president appeared to soften his stance since issuing the policy and forging closer relationships with tech leaders whose companies use the program. When discussing H-1B visas with Fox News host Laura Ingraham last month, he disputed that the U.S. has enough talented people and said it still needs to bring in workers for certain areas.

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers defended the administration’s actions Friday as not only lawful but “a necessary, initial, incremental step towards necessary reforms to the H-1B program.”

“President Trump promised to put American workers first, and his commonsense action on H-1B visas does just that by 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,” Rogers said in a statement responding to the lawsuit.

Bonta did not recommend specific reforms to the H-1B process Friday, though he told reporters that like any program or policy, it can “probably benefit from improvements.”

Earlier this fall, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed its own lawsuit, joined by a group representing research universities, against the new fee, contesting that the administration overrode provisions of a law that governs the H-1B program. A separate suit was filed by a wider collection of groups, including different sector labor unions.

The new suit will be filed in Massachusetts federal court and led by Bonta with the Bay State’s attorney general, Andrea Joy Campbell. It represents the 49th time that Bonta has taken the Trump administration to court this year.