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, 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 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 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.  

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]. 

‘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. "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. 

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. 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’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. 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 and the chief privacy officer for UC San Diego, in an op-ed for The San Diego Union-Tribune. "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 and James Seddon. The editorial board at Bloomberg Opinion 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. "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