Wednesday, January 4
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THE FORUM DAILY

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced
<[link removed]>
a new comprehensive fee structure for visas and naturalizations on
Tuesday, reports Rafael Bernal of The Hill
<[link removed]>.
There would be some big jumps, as well as some decreases. 

Generally speaking, fees would rise for business-related applications
and decrease for humanitarian visas. The new structure would allow the
agency to hire an estimated 8,000 additional staff to process new
applications and address backlogs more quickly. 

The agency has received backlog reduction funding from Congress in the
past two years - but not this year, Bernal notes. As we noted last
year
<[link removed]>,
such funding would have helped the agency address "a growing
humanitarian caseload ... work that is not supported by applicant fees."
Instead, it is turning to fee increases that will hit employers
particularly hard.  

Hamed Aleaziz of The Los Angeles Times
<[link removed]>
more closely analyzes how the H-1B and H-2A foreign-worker programs
will be affected. Elsewhere, American Immigration Council Policy
Director Aaron Reichlin-Melnick tweeted
<[link removed]>
a great breakdown of the proposed changes overall. 

On the bright side, USCIS plans to continue waiving fees for visas that
help trafficking and crime victims who assist law enforcement, and the
proposed naturalization fee increase is minimal. 

A 60-day public comment period on the proposed fee rule will begin with
its publication in the federal register, scheduled for today. Fees will
not change until the final rule goes into effect. 

Separately, before we get too far into the year, take a look at Stuart
Anderson's immigration outlook in Forbes
<[link removed]>.
 

Welcome to Wednesday's edition of The Forum Daily. I'm Dan
Gordon, the Forum's strategic communications VP, and the great Forum
Daily team also includes Dynahlee Padilla-Vasquez, Clara Villatoro and
Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own community, please
send it to me at [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>. 

**'THIS WAS LIFE-CHANGING'** - When separate cruise ships
encountered a total of 24 Cuban migrants at sea in recent weeks, the
response of the vacationers aboard was moving and powerful, as David
Lyons reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
<[link removed]>.
"I anticipated there might be some bitter people," said Ellen Fulton, an
amateur photographer from Fort Lauderdale. "But people were pretty
amazed and supportive that they just possibly saved a lot of lives. ...
For everybody on the ship this was life-changing. It was such a powerful
experience." Meanwhile, the United States Embassy in Cuba has reopened
its visa and consular services for the first time since 2017, per Megan
Janetsky of the Associated Press
<[link removed]>. 

**LACK OF ACTION **- Farmers are starting a new year with continuing
labor shortages while half of agricultural workers keep "living in the
shadows," given their lack of immigration status, reports Ximena
Bustillo of NPR
<[link removed]>.
Without a solution, producers caution that the cost of labor will
increase while the availability goes down - overall putting the
delicate food supply chain at risk, notes Bustillo. "With protections
... I would be able to do more things that I currently can't - like
get a driver's license or a loan," said Maria, an undocumented migrant
in Idaho. Dairy farmers are among the most affected. "We have this
continual shortage of workers, we have a predominantly foreign-born
workforce, and we don't have access to a visa program like other
industry sectors do," said Rick Naerebout, CEO of the Idaho Dairymen's
Association. Meanwhile, the Idaho Statesman
<[link removed]>'s
editorial board doesn't mince words about the lack of action for
farmers. 

**GROWTH CHALLENGES, SOLUTIONS** - Increased immigration could be the
solution to America's rapidly shrinking population, reports Jeff Wise
in New York Magazine's Intelligencer
<[link removed]>.
Trump administration immigration policies and the pandemic are part of
the reasons for the decline, in addition to life expectancy and birth
rates decreasing. "When it comes to demographic decline, I think
there's a lot of reason to believe that immigration is a really
important part of the solution," our policy expert Danilo Zak told Wise.
"We're just looking much healthier demographically if we increase
immigration." Wise warns that if the decline continues, the country
could face demographic challenges such as those in West Virginia, which
are causing several issues. 

**FOR OUR AFGHAN ALLIES** - The U.S. must honor its commitment to
Afghan allies by urgently passing the Afghan Adjustment Act, which
passed the House with bipartisan support last year. So writes Pegah
Parsi, a volunteer with the #AfghanEvac Coalition
<[link removed]> and the chief privacy officer for UC San
Diego, in an op-ed for The San Diego Union-Tribune
<[link removed]>.
"The impossible situation currently imposed on Afghan allies is an
injustice of the worst kind: a betrayal," writes Parsi. "It is a
betrayal of all #AfghanEvac private citizen volunteers who have been
shouldering this burden on their own. It is also bad for national
security. Therefore, it is the duty of all of us citizens to act to
correct this injustice." Don't miss the other powerful op-eds in this
package, by Mohammad J. Rahimi
<[link removed]>
and James Seddon
<[link removed]>.
The editorial board at Bloomberg Opinion
<[link removed]>
made a similar case yesterday as well. 

UKRAINIAN SPONSORSHIP - The Uniting for Ukraine sponsorship program
has been a good first step in welcoming and supporting Ukrainian
refugees, writes Ilya Somin, a sponsor and law professor at George Mason
University, in an op-ed for The Washington Post
<[link removed]>.
"The next step is for Congress and the Biden administration to work
together to turn that miracle, with some critical improvements, into the
norm," he writes. One improvement would be a path to permanent
residency, since humanitarian parole, which allows Ukrainians to work
and live in the U.S., is temporary. Another idea is to revise the
application process to reduce redundancy. "By building on the success of
Uniting for Ukraine, we can simultaneously advance America's interests
and live up to its highest ideals," Somin concludes.  

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

 

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