ACTION ALERT: Keep Citizenship Affordable; Oppose Proposed Fee Increases for Immigrants Seeking Citizenship
By Alexandra Olins, Director of Employment and Citizenship Services at ACRS
A recently proposed rule change from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) would have far-reaching and deeply harmful impacts on lawful permanent residents (LPRs) seeking to become U.S. citizens through naturalization. In what could be characterized as an all-out attack on the American dream, USCIS’s proposed rule change would increase the N-400 application fee by a whopping 83%, while also eliminating fee waiver options that many low-income immigrants utilize in order to apply.
The current fee for the N-400 application is $640. The proposed fee is a staggering $1,170. Furthermore, LPRs – who currently receive a means-tested public benefit and are otherwise eligible to have their application fee waived – would be forced to pay this increase under the proposed rule change, which seeks to eliminate the fee waiver altogether. In 2018, approximately 64% of ACRS’s naturalization clients utilized the fee waiver.
USCIS is within its rights to adjust the fee schedule for immigration services every three years. The proposed fee increases, however, do not include a valid reason for what amounts to a 21% across-the-board fee increase for all immigration benefits. Nor do they explain why the increase for the N-400 application is an exorbitant 83%.
USCIS’s proposed rule change is consistent with the administration’s attack on immigrants.
These fee increases, coupled with the elimination of the fee waiver for many immigration applications, constitute a wealth test and are morally wrong. Immigrants who come to the United States of their own free will have always done so in search of a better life. Regardless of income, they have had access to the security and benefits that come with U.S. citizenship. Immigrants have contributed to the prosperity of this country and have made it better since its founding. If this wealth test is allowed to stand, it will put the American dream and the possibility of becoming full members of society out of reach for millions of immigrants.
Another element of the proposed changes is the transfer of $200 million per year from the increased USCIS fees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). To accept payments from immigrants for the evaluation of their immigration applications and use those funds for enforcement against their communities is wrong. Finally, USCIS proposes to add a new fee of $50 on applications for asylum. Currently, only three countries in the world charge a fee to petition for asylum.
We cannot allow this proposed rule change to become law and cause irreparable harm to Seattle’s immigrant communities.
Please take a few minutes to tell USCIS that you oppose this proposal by submitting a comment before Monday, December 16, 2019.
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