Reconciliation text includes big boosts to immigration fees

WASHINGTON — Part of the House budget reconciliation proposal includes a steep increase in fees throughout the immigration system, such as a new $1,000 application fee for asylum claims and a new $8,500 fee to sponsor an unaccompanied minor migrant.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said during a markup of the reconciliation text that the new fees would raise an estimated $77 billion in revenue and build on the immigration policies of the Trump administration.

But experts who work in the immigration system say the changes will put that immigration system out of reach for many migrants and others seeking to help them.

Jennifer Podkul, chief of global advocacy for Kids in Need of Defense, which works to help unaccompanied children, said Tuesday the new $8,500 fee would “make it unattainable” for youths to obtain sponsorship in the United States.

“This is not just merely fee readjustment, you know, to catch up with inflation or costs, or anything like that,” Podkul said. “I mean, this is a drastic policy change intended to make it next to impossible for kids to ask for protection.”

Jordan said at the markup that the current fee structure has “not been updated in some cases for decades, and in many cases, fees have never been applied at all.”

The Congressional Budget Office, Jordan said, estimated that the fees for asylum alone would raise $748 million over 10 years. The CBO also estimated that the revenue from new fees for applying for Temporary Protected Status would be $2 billion, while fees for renewing work permits would raise $4.7 billion, he said.

“The fees included in this bill will allow agencies to achieve cost recovery and limit their reliance on taxpayer funding,” Jordan said. “They will also allow us to make the necessary investments in immigration enforcement in a fiscally responsible manner.”

The panel voted 23-17 along party lines to approve the text, which was written as part of the process detailed in the fiscal 2025 budget resolution.

Eric Ruark, who focuses on research at NumbersUSA, a group that wants to reduce immigration, said the increase in fees for applications for asylum and work permits were a “positive” aspect of the House proposal.

“I do think that this is a deterrent for false and fraudulent asylum claims, because people aren’t going to be as willing to pay $1,000 for the application if they know that they’re likely to lose their case and much more likely to be released,” Ruark said.

Ruark added that the fee increase is a “needed deterrent” because the asylum system should “focus on people who are actually in need,” and “not economic migrants who are using it to get into the country to work.”

Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., said during a committee markup on April 30 that the new fees amount to “commodifying the immigration system” to further attacks on immigration.

“Just look at what’s in this bill. They want people fleeing violence and persecution to pay a thousand bucks so they can apply,” Garcia said. “They want people to pay $550 every six months to work. They want people to pay $900 to appeal rulings against them.”

Asylum constraint

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow of the American Immigration Council, said in an analysis of the House proposal that the fees would “reshape immigration benefits” available to migrants, such as that first-ever fee for asylum.

“This alone would effectively eliminate asylum as an option for unaccompanied children and asylum-seekers held in detention who have no money or access to work opportunities,” Reichlin-Melnick said.

Reichlin-Melnick said “even asylum applicants outside of detention would struggle to pay these fees,” because the House proposal would require asylum applicants applying for work permits to pay $550 every six months to obtain and keep them, as well as an additional $100 fee every year the application remains pending.

Other new fees include $500 for Temporary Protected Status for migrants seeking to escape their home countries in domestic turmoil, an increase from the current fee of $50. There would also be a new $500 fee for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, a pathway to legal permanent residence for minors who have faced family abuse in their home country.

Reichlin-Melnick wrote that the House proposal also includes two new penalties disguised as “fees” on migrants facing enforcement actions.

A migrant who crosses the border and is apprehended by federal immigration officials, Reichlin-Melnick wrote, would be charged a $5,000 penalty, when current law allows the government to penalize them by a maximum of $250. Similarly, any person ordered deported for missing a court hearing would be given a $5,000 fee, he wrote.

The fees could go even further than the numbers stated in the proposal. An analysis from the American Immigration Council posits that all proposed fees are the minimum and could be increased by the Department of Homeland Security or layered on top of existing fees. And the fees are subject to yearly inflationary adjustments, the analysis says.

Unaccompanied minors

Podkul said a child first designated as unaccompanied might have a parent or legal guardian in the United States who would care for them, and estimated that to be about half of the sponsors who would have to pay the new $8,500 fee.

That would amount to “creating a system in which a parent would be having to pay almost like a ransom to the U.S. government to get their child back to them,” Podkul said.

The $8,500 number is broken down as a nonrefundable $3,500 to pay back the U.S. government for care of the unaccompanied minors, plus an additional $5,000 that would be refunded if the child attends immigration court hearings in the asylum process.

David Spicer, who focuses on migration and refugee services for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said via email Tuesday that the new fees “are likely to be an insurmountable obstacle” for sponsors seeking to help migrant youths.

“Ironically, this could have the unintended consequence of increasing federal expenditures, as more children would be kept in government custody for longer periods,” Spicer added.

The new fee comes on the heels of criticism from Republicans against the Biden administration for purportedly having lost track of 300,000 unaccompanied migrant youths after they were placed with sponsors. Immigration advocates have disputed the characterization of these youths as being lost.

Podkul said it was “shocking” to see the fee scheme in the House package because unaccompanied youths have traditionally had “bipartisan acknowledgment” of the need for extra protection.

Podkul also questioned whether instituting a fee through the reconciliation process would be lawful. “What it really appears to be doing is trying to circumnavigate laws and legal settlements that have been long-standing … that allow kids to ask for protection,” Podkul said.

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