From our friends at UnidosUS:

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule that would increase fees for aspiring citizens, asylum seekers, DACA recipients, and other immigrants. If enacted, this rule would:

Place heavy financial burdens on thousands of low-income immigrants, by drastically increasing the cost of naturalization from $640 to $1,170 — a historic 83 percent increase.
Defer tremendous economic benefits to communities that come from eligible permanent residents becoming citizens.
Make the U.S. one of only four countries in the world to charge people for asylum with a new $50 fee for affirmative asylum and $490 for work permits.
Eliminate critical fee waivers for immigrants experiencing severe financial hardships. This rule would end a long-standing fee waiver program that has kept naturalization, green card renewals and other benefits accessible. It would also raise the total cost for DACA renewals from $495 to $765.
Transfer $207.6 million in funds that should be used for immigration and naturalization processing to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to use for enforcement.

There are two ways that we are encouraging people to fight back against this cruel rule:

Submit an individual comment. Use this handy “click-to-comment” tool, created by our partners at CLINIC. Please note that even though the Federal Register may not have updated its closing date, the deadline to submit comments has been extended to December 30th. You can also spread the word with friends, family, and on social media once they have submitted a comment. Sample social media hashtags include:
- #KeepCitizenshipAffordable
- #TearDownThe2ndWall
Submit an organizational comment. Use this template from our partners at CLINIC that has background on the fee schedule and how to comment. This is followed by a template comment that includes paragraphs on various topics that your organization may be interested in addressing. You can review the paragraphs, and pull any of particular interest to your organization into the main body of the letter, then customize the language to fit your own organization’s position and experiences.

Coalition on Human Needs
www.chn.org

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