New Rules & Public Charge 101 Webinar
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Dear Allies,
This week, we are sharing updates about new rules from the Trump administration and information on how you can fight back. If you are new to the campaign, we encourage you to join us for our monthly Public Charge 101 webinar this Thursday (1/30) at 3pm ET, 12pm PT. In the one-hour webinar, experts from NILC and CLASP will describe the different public charge policies currently in place, discuss how and when they may change, and explain what you need to know if you work with immigrant families. We will also cover how you can take action and get more involved with the work of the Protecting Immigrant Families Campaign. Click here to register.
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STATE DEPARTMENT FINAL RULE TARGETING PREGNANT WOMEN
Last week, without advance notice or a comment period, the State Department issued a shocking final rule which gives visa officers more power to block pregnant women from visiting the United States. The rule pushes consular officers to reject tourist (B visa) applications for women that are suspected of coming to the United States to give birth. The Trump administration is signaling to officers abroad that women who are close to delivering a child should be added to a growing list of immigrants unwelcome here. For more information, we recommend this article from the New York Times.
Below are some talking points from our partners at the Immigration Hub:
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Trump’s Anti-Woman Body Shaming Test is Not Immigration Policy. Trump is once again ploughing over U.S. laws to buttress and exploit anti-immigrant sentiment in his base. His primary tool this time literally requires the public body shaming of women and girls - both those who are pregnant and those who “look” pregnant to the untrained and wholly unqualified opinion of our consular officers around the world.
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Women and girls have the right to equality, dignity, autonomy, bodily integrity and respect for their private life without discrimination under U.S. and international law. Forcing women to prove, in public, that they are not traveling to the U.S. to give birth, or not even pregnant, is simply a violation of their rights and won’t stand court scrutiny.
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Pregnancy is Not a National Security Issue. Through this regulation, pregnancy is now considered a national security threat. Trump has made clear his disdain for brown and black people consistently, and now he has added all girls and women to his list of undesirables.
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FEE HIKE RULE:
COMMENT PERIOD REOPENS FOR 2 WEEKS
On Friday, USCIS reopened their comment period for a proposed change to the fee schedule for an additional 15 days, ending on February 10. This impending rule change would make it impossible for many immigrants who aren’t wealthy to gain status or citizenship. The rule would raise application fees for citizenship from $640 to $1,170, for lawful permanent residency from $1,220 to $2,195; DACA renewals from $495 to $765; and for the first time would create a fee for asylum applications. CLINIC has a template comment available which can be adapted to reflect your organization and clients’ concerns. We highly encourage agencies to tailor the comment and make it their own.
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SPONSOR INFORMATION COLLECTION: COMMENT PERIOD ENDS FEBRUARY 18
USCIS has proposed an information collection that would ask public benefit agencies to share information about sponsor deeming and reimbursement. Open for a 60-day comment period that ends on February 18, these proposed changes follow a presidential memo and agency guidance on sponsor deeming and reimbursement issued last year. Next week we will share a draft template comment in opposition to the information collection and a fact sheet that talks more about this issue.
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Thank you for your continued partnership!
Madison Allen, Center for Law and Social Policy, &
Connie Choi, National Immigration Law Center
Visit us at https://protectingimmigrantfamilies.org/
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