Federal Judge Halts U.S. Citizenship Application Fees Increase

A federal court blocked a planned increase in fees for asylum seekers and applicants for U.S. citizenship.

The rule by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was supposed to take effect Oct. 2 – increasing the cost of a U.S. citizenship application by more than 80 percent.

The naturalization application would have increased from $640 to $1,170. It would have eliminated the option to request a reduced fee as well as fee waivers like extenuating financial hardship and public benefits, like food stamps. Only some protected immigrants, including victims of domestic violence and human trafficking, would have remained eligible for fee waivers.

For the first time, asylum seekers fleeing persecution in their home countries would have paid a fee of $50 to apply for asylum if they are not in deportation proceedings.

A federal judge with the Northern District of California halted the fee increases, and said the Trump administration had failed to provide data to justify it.

In response to the injunction, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services deputy director Joseph Edlow said in a statement the ruling was "unprecedented and harmful to the American people."

"As required by federal law, USCIS conducted a comprehensive biennial fee review and determined that current fees do not recover the cost of providing adjudication and naturalization services," Edlow said in a statement. "This is nothing new or abnormal. In fact, the fee rule is two years behind schedule, and is a smaller percentage increase than the previous. In a fee-funded agency such as USCIS, this increase is necessary to continue operations in any long-term, meaningful way to ensure cost recovery."

Contact reporter Paola at pmarizan@wnin.org or follow her on Twitter at @pmarizan