So Why the High Price? (Green Card) Fees increase by 66% / WaPo Editorial

[Demeter]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/03/AR2007060300906.html?referrer=email

. . . So Why the High Price?
Fees increase by 66 percent.

Monday, June 4, 2007; A14



GIVE US your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free -- but only if they can scrape together $1,010 for a green card.

Last week U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced its new fee schedule for immigrants applying for citizenship and other visas and work permits. Starting July 30, fees will rise by an average of 66 percent, with some, such as the permanent residency application, nearly tripling. Fees are slightly lower or waived for certain groups, such as children or servicemen.

Mired in inefficiency, a huge backlog of applications and a non-computerized paper record system, the immigration agency desperately needs to raise revenue. Unlike other federal agencies, it is funded totally by user fees, receiving no consistent appropriations from Congress. The agency thus has no choice but to place the entire burden of funding its backlog and new infrastructure on those chasing the American dream, rather than on those who have already attained it.

The chasers, however, are disproportionately poor; U.S. residents who are not citizens are twice as likely as citizens to be below the poverty line, according to the Census. If these steeper fees don't price out some of those aspiring to be citizens or legal residents altogether, the fees will surely at least delay their Americanization. Immigrants' income levels and resources should have been a factor in computing the new prices. Instead, the agency calculated only the cost to itself of processing each application, according to a spokesman.

The United States is a nation of immigrants with a historical mission of welcoming others to the melting pot. Immigrants are the primary beneficiaries of USCIS services. Asking them to partially fund their own applications makes sense. But those services also benefit society at large, and the agency should not have to subsist solely on user fees, particularly when many of its "users" are especially needy. Congress should provide consistent funding to the immigration agency so it can afford its necessary upgrades without pricing any immigrants out of the American dream.

[hobbit709]

1. This administration's slogan "Money Talks"

And he needs all the money he can get for his dirty little war.

[madrchsod]

2. high interest loan sharking to pay for the increases?

this underground economy will prey upon those who can not pay for those increases. they will have no recourse in the legal system when they are ripped off. employers are going to really profit because they can offer to pay the fees and then offer lower wages,promise of a full time job, and then fire and hire new workers..

the whole idea is to restrict the system to only those who can "borrow" the money from a family member, loan shark,or an employer.

[sharp_stick]

3. If it would actually be used to improve the system

I wouldn't mind as much but with the gross inefficiency of the USCIS and the rude seemingly random treatment of applicants I really doubt any of this extra cash will be used to improve "service".