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New Fees Create Impossible Bar for Many Immigrants
Posted on Nov 14 2019
UPDATED December 7, 2019—In its latest move to keep immigrants out, the Trump administration now plans to increase fees and eliminate fee waivers for most immigration applications. These plans include—for the first time—a fee for asylum. Adding insult to injury, increased fees will help to fund enforcement, rather than being reserved to pay for processing the applications for which the fees are paid.
“Charging a fee to asylum seekers is particularly heinous,” said Veena Iyer, executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM). “The asylum officer who called this fee ‘blood money’ got it exactly right.”
| Benefit | Current Fee | Proposed Fee | Net Difference | % Change |
| Asylum | 0 | $50 | $50 | N/A |
| DACA | $495 | $765 | $270 | 55% |
| Lawful Permanent Residence | $1,225 | $2,195 | $970 | 79% |
| Naturalization | $640 | $1,170 | $530 | 83% |
Moreover, fee waivers—which have long been accepted and granted for a wide variety of immigration benefits—will be eliminated for all applicants except for five categories of crime, abuse, and trafficking victims protected by specific statutes that USCIS cannot change.
“Working with low-income immigrants every day, ILCM attorneys see their passion for citizenship and the enormous contributions they make to this country,” said Iyer. “These fee increases and the elimination of virtually all fee waivers betray the ideals and values of this country.”
The increased fees were announced last week and published in the Federal Register on November 14, with a 30-day comment period before they go into effect, half the normal comment time. UPDATE: On December 6, the comment period was extended to December 30.
You can resist the fee increase by submitting a public comment to the Federal Register and by contacting your Congressional representatives to ask them to act to preserve fee waivers for all low-income applicants.