DHS plan transfers the cost of the border crisis to U.S. businesses

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CIS Public Comment on USCIS’s Fee Rule ([link removed])
DHS plan transfers the cost of the
border crisis to U.S. businesses
Washington, D.C. (March 17, 2023) - The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) submitted a public comment ([link removed]) in response to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s proposal to update the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) fee schedule. In our comment, CIS opposed DHS’s plan to transfer the cost of the border crisis to U.S. employers that petition for foreign workers and recommended reforms to promote equity and efficiency in the legal immigration system.

Elizabeth Jacobs, the Center’s director of regulatory affairs and policy and author of the public comment, said, “The proposed fee schedule inappropriately imposes the political priorities of the Biden administration rather than fairly adjusting fees based on actual cost of adjudication for most benefit requests. CIS encourages USCIS to incorporate the beneficiary-pays principle, which asks beneficiaries to pay for the costs of the services they are provided, when determining how much applicants and petitioners should be paying for immigration benefits services administered by the agency.”

CIS recommended ([link removed]) that USCIS set its fee levels to recover the costs of adjudication for most immigration benefits services (excluding certain humanitarian or statutorily exempt categories), limit fee waiver eligibility where inappropriate or unnecessary, and maintain its discount for online filing, which will increase government efficiency and transparency in the long run. In 2020, USCIS estimated that the agency’s current fee waiver policies would result in USCIS forgoing almost $1.5 billion dollars in revenue annually. USCIS relies on fee-paying applicants and petitioners to pay inflated fees ([link removed]) to make up for this loss.

Additionally, CIS urged DHS ([link removed]) to make reforms to deter illegal immigration and close loopholes in the asylum system in order to reduce costs associated with administering USCIS’s asylum program as an alternative to its plan to impose a new “Asylum Program Fee ([link removed]) ,” which would be paid for exclusively by U.S. employers (of any size) to subsidize the border crisis. CIS also recommended that USCIS impose a fee for the Form I-589, Application for Asylum and Withholding of Removal, and provide a fee waiver application for low-income applicants to avoid conflicts with the United States’ nonrefoulement obligations. Currently, USCIS imposes no fees to cover the costs of credible fear screenings, reasonable fear screenings, or asylum
applications.

Finally, CIS explained ([link removed]) that DHS must also terminate DACA and USCIS’s unlawful parole programs. The unauthorized programs violate federal immigration law and divert USCIS resources from legitimate visa programs.
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