USCIS to charge historic fee for asylum-seeking applicants

MCALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — For the first time in United States history, asylum-seekers will also have to pay a fee when filing an application. This is doing away with a policy that has existed for decades.

ValleyCentral spoke to Attorney Carlos Moctezuma Garcia in McAllen, who says the new $1,000 fee will discourage many people from even applying in the first place.

"That's a very troubling proposition, because people who come with no resources or actually fleeing from their home country have limited access to financial stability, and so it's going to make it a lot more difficult for people to send in asylum applications," Garcia said.

Garcia has handled numerous asylum cases during his career, and he says the new fee could prevent vulnerable people from seeking protection. He believes the government may be trying to reduce fraud and raise funds to hire more immigration staff.

Still, he argues the potential harm outweighs the benefits.

“There has been some fraud in recent times where people are submitting applications that they should not be submitting to the government, and perhaps that is also a reason why the government is indicating that they want to charge for this to deter people who don't qualify for a certain type of benefit from sending those applications, but unfortunately, it also, it also affects those others who are legitimately applying," the attorney added.

Under current law, asylum-seekers have only one year after arriving in the U.S. to submit their application. Many use that time to achieve some level of financial stability, which is something Garcia says will now be harder to do with this added cost.

While full details of the new policy have not been released, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) services said they "will soon begin to collect new fees for certain immigration benefit requests. We will provide details on the implementation of these fee changes in the coming days.”

Garcia expects a drop in asylum applications, as many who are fleeing persecution may no longer be able to afford the application process.

“This is what the administration wants to do," Garcia said. "It wants to discourage people who are applying for immigration relief. It wants to discourage those who cannot afford to do so from applying and so they're doing what they want to do.”

The new fees are expected to be in effect beginning in October.