(LIBERIA) – Liberia’s Senate Committee on Labor told the Senate on Thursday, June 18, 2026, that higher work permit fees for foreign nationals pushed revenue to US$6.318 million in the period from September 2025 to January 2026, up from US$3.16 million in the previous period.

The committee, chaired by Senator Thomas Yaya Nimely, said the increase followed a rise in the fee per permit from US$1,000 to US$3,000.

Application volume fell to 2,106 from 3,193, while non-compliance or rejected cases climbed to 2,105 from 613.

The findings were presented during the Liberian Senate’s regular session after the committee met Labor Minister Cllr. Cooper W. Kruah on June 2, 2026 to review the revised fee structure.

The committee said the higher charges had “contributed to a reduction in the hiring of unskilled and minimally skilled foreign workers” and “strengthened regulatory oversight in the labor sector.”

Liberian officials tied the fee change to a broader effort to prioritize domestic employment. The government plans to use the larger intake for job reclamation and programs aimed at supporting Liberian workers.

The revenue increase came even as demand for permits dropped sharply. The figures showed the state collected roughly double the previous intake despite processing more than a thousand fewer applications.

Non-compliance moved in the opposite direction. The jump from 613 to 2,105 suggested tighter enforcement or a larger pool of applicants failing to meet the new standard after the fee increase took effect.

The Liberian numbers emerged at the same time that U.S. immigration agencies were advancing a series of fee, funding and work authorization measures with far larger totals and broader legal reach. Those moves have centered on the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in June 2026.

President Trump signed the Secure America Act on June 10, 2026, providing $69.5 billion to ICE and CBP through 2029. The law followed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed in 2025, which provided $170 billion to DHS.

That U.S. funding backdrop has run alongside a court fight over a new H-1B charge. On June 8, 2026, a federal judge in Massachusetts, in Case No. 25-13829-LTS, vacated a DHS policy that imposed a $100,000 supplemental fee on new H-1B petitions.

The judge ruled that fee was an “unconstitutional tax” that exceeded executive authority. Four days later, on June 12, 2026, the court partially stayed the vacatur, leaving the fee active while the government appeals.

DHS also published a proposed rule on June 5, 2026, identified as USCIS-2026-0067, titled “Clarification of Discretionary Employment Authorization for Certain Aliens.” The proposal would restrict discretionary work permits for parolees, people with deferred action, and people with final orders of removal who remain on supervision.

DHS officials said the rule seeks to “ensure aliens pay for immigration services” and to prioritize “job availability for U.S. citizens.” The proposal could affect nearly 1 million migrants, and the public comment deadline is August 4, 2026.

The contrast is one of scale, not of subject. Liberia’s reported US$6.3 Million intake came from a targeted increase in permit charges for foreign workers.

U.S. agencies are dealing with multibillion-dollar appropriations, a six-figure H-1B fee under appeal, and a proposed work authorization rule that reaches far beyond a single visa class.

Still, both systems are using fee policy and permit controls to shape labor markets. In Liberia, the committee linked higher charges to fewer foreign applicants and more enforcement cases.

In the United States, DHS has paired funding expansion with measures that affect employment authorization, including the H-1B litigation and the proposed rule published at the Federal Register.

Liberia’s labor authorities have framed the permit increase as a way to shift hiring toward local workers while raising state income. The committee’s account to senators showed that the higher fee produced more money even as the volume of applications fell by roughly a third.

The Liberian government has not presented the increase as a narrow revenue measure alone. By tying the results to a “Liberianization” effort, officials put the fee structure inside a labor policy that aims to curb reliance on lower-skilled foreign labor and tighten oversight through the Ministry of Labour.

Ministry public information is posted at the Liberian Ministry of Labour website.

In the United States, the next milestones are already set. The $100,000 H-1B supplemental fee remains in effect pending appeal.

Comments on USCIS-2026-0067 remain open until August 4, 2026, while USCIS continues to post agency updates through its newsroom.