U.S. reverses course on massive immigration and citizenship fee hikes after court injunction
Immigrants and foreign nationals in the United States were supposed to start paying substantially more in fees to apply for many immigration and naturalization benefit requests starting Friday, Oct. 2.
But the Trump administration’s plans for an exorbitant increase in fees for some of the most common immigration procedures have been halted after a California federal judge blocked the Department of Homeland Security agency from increasing fees.
On Thursday evening, USCIS said in a Spanish-language press release that, as a result of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California preliminary injunction of the Final Fee Rule, the agency was going to accept immigration forms with the current fees. “while the rule is blocked.”
The most drastic rate increase was going to affect eligible people applying for U.S. citizenship through naturalization, lawful permanent residency or green cards, work visas, documents for families or crime victims, and countless other immigration benefits. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Fee Rule included an unprecedented $50 fee for asylum-seekers.
Some policy changes related to the USCIS Fee Rule aimed to remove certain fee exemptions and eliminate fee waivers for qualifying low-income immigrants. Now, the immigration agency will have to accept and adjudicate petitions with fee waivers, the press release said.
The Trump administration has up to 60 days to appeal the decision.
Judge halts cost hikes for immigration and citizenship processes
Also this week, Judge Jeffrey White on Tuesday issued a nationwide preliminary injunction temporarily halting the fee increases in response to litigation filed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and eight other immigrants’ rights organizations.
“Plaintiffs persuasively argue that the public interest would be served by enjoining or staying the effective date of the Final Rule because if it takes effect, it will prevent vulnerable and low-income applicants from applying for immigration benefits, will block access to humanitarian protections, and will expose those populations to further danger,” wrote Judge White in the ruling, according to Boundless Immigration.
AILA’s director of Federal Litigation, Jesse Bless, said in a statement that, “Judge White recognized that the government pushed to increase fees arbitrarily without considering important concerns identified by plaintiffs and thousands of commenters in opposition to the rule, including the negative impact the rule would have on low-income immigrant populations and those seeking asylum.”
The fees’ adjustment included a $50 fee in the Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal. That would have made the United States one of only four countries around the world that charges a fee for humanitarian protection.
Under the rule, the Petition for Qualifying Family Member of a U-1 Nonimmigrant (victims of criminal activity) would increase by 546%, from $230 to $1,485. Meanwhile, the fee to apply for U.S. citizenship would increase from $640 to $1,160 if filed online, or $ 1,170 in paper filing.
USCIS responds to court´s decision to block fees for immigration benefits
The DHS agency was scheduled to begin furloughs of about 13,400 employees — roughly two-thirds of its staff — on Aug. 30 because of ongoing budget woes, but it canceled those plans as a result of aggressive cost-cutting measures and an increase in incoming revenue.
According to the fee-funded agency the Fee Rule aimed to recover its operating costs. On Wednesday evening, Joseph Edlow, USCIS deputy director for policy said in a statement that White’s decision, “Leaves USCIS underfunded by millions of dollars each business day the fee rule is enjoined.”
“This increase is necessary to continue operations in any long-term, meaningful way to ensure cost recovery,” he asserted. The court’s injunction, he added, “Is unprecedented and harmful to the American people.”
In response to Edlow’s statement, Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), said in a news release: “Any lack of funding that USCIS alleges is the result of its own, politically manufactured crisis to make the United States an exclusive country club only for the whitest and wealthiest, consistent with the Trump administration’s relentless and unlawful attacks against immigrants and refugees.”
Daniel Shoer Roth is a journalist covering immigration law who does not offer legal advice or individual assistance to applicants. Follow him on Twitter @DanielShoerRoth or Instagram. The contents of this story do not constitute legal advice.
Read this Story in Spanish at el Nuevo Herald.
This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 8:09 PM with the headline "U.S. reverses course on massive immigration and citizenship fee hikes after court injunction."
