(Photo: NBC Los Angeles) On November 14th, 2019, the Trump administration published a proposed fee schedule that would drastically increase fees for immigration applications, effectively closing the door on citizenship, asylum, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), work permits, and other forms of immigration status for low-income and working class immigrants. The proposed rule is an affront to our values and the promise of the Statue of Liberty that welcomes immigrants regardless of their wealth. Immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers make our diverse nation stronger, more prosperous, and culturally vibrant. Instead of marginalizing them, we should further include and invest in them.
If implemented, the new fee schedule would: - Increase citizenship application fees by 83 percent, increasing the N-400 fee from $640 to $1,170 - Create a $50 fee for certain asylum applications and a $490 fee for work permits for asylees - Increase the cost of DACA renewals from $495 to $765 - Eliminate fee waivers for citizenship, lawful permanent residency, employment authorization, and other applications - Transfer $207.6 million in applications fees from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for enforcement purposes, including denaturalization The proposed rule is not in effect yet! We still have time to take action to keep this administration from erecting even more barriers to citizenship and other forms of relief. National organizations like CLINIC are coordinating advocacy efforts and creating materials. What You Can Do:1) Submit a comment opposing the fee increases! Deadline to submit comments is December 16, 2019. See CLINIC sample comments on citizenship and asylum fees. 2) Organize an immigration legal clinic for citizenship applications and DACA renewals between November 2019 - April 2020 before the fees possibly increase. 3) Speak out against this egregious attack on immigrants and refugees. Download template social media posts and the Fee Schedule Fighters Toolkit. |