Immigrant Fees Are Expected to Rise

A proposed hike in fees relating to immigration services prompted Loida Spicer to finally submit an application for U.S. citizenship last month, after living in America for 31 years.

“I remember 10 years ago, it cost about $60,” said Spicer, 42, a mother of two teenagers. “Now it’s $310. From $60 to $310 -- that’s a lot. And it’s going to get higher. That’s why I had to do it now.”

A teaching aide for a Head Start school program in Long Beach with an American husband who works in real estate, the Guatemalan was able to afford the processing fee for naturalization.

Thousands of other would-be citizens are less fortunate and are more likely to feel the pinch of a proposed 26% boost in immigration-related costs. Pro-immigration activists and community leaders say such an increase would place an unfair -- and in some cases insurmountable -- obstacle in the path of those seeking to fulfill their dreams of becoming Americans.

“It will make it a longer journey,” said Rosalind Gold, senior director of policy, research and advocacy at the Los Angeles-based National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “The road will be longer and it will be bumpier.”

The fee increase is expected to take effect “as soon as possible,” according to William Yates, associate director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The public had until March 4 to comment on the proposal. Those observations usually are reviewed before a final decision is made, but government officials appeared to indicate that there was no turning back.

The officials said that the hike was necessary to cover the cost of national security enhancements, improved refugee processing, naturalization services for immigrant military personnel and the new Office of Citizenship, among other things.

“We are concerned about fees being high, and people not being able to afford the increased burden, but we have to recoup the costs,” Yates said. He said that new security checks had added to the price of processing applications, but that such measures were crucial.

“The security of the American public has got to be paramount as we screen applicants for the process of naturalization,” Yates said.

He said the cost of legally obtaining citizenship was reasonable, considering that many would-be immigrants were paying thousands of dollars to enter the country illegally.

The citizenship office would continue to consider fee waivers for needy eligible applicants, Yates said.

This is unwelcome news for thousands of cash-strapped immigrants who already have been approved to apply for citizenship, community advocates said. Recent U.S. census data show that 41% of immigrants from Mexico and Central America have annual household incomes of less than $25,000.

The fees for starting the naturalization process, for example, would jump from $310 -- which includes the application and fingerprinting -- to $390.

Officials of the Latino association cited the example of a couple with two children who wished to pursue naturalization for themselves and then obtain a certificate of citizenship for their children.

They now would pay $390 for each parent’s application form and fingerprinting, and $240 for each child’s application, for a total of $1,260.

Spicer, who hopes her application will be processed quickly, said, “You have to save every month, little by little.”

Activists seeking to tighten American immigration regulations are unsympathetic, saying that increasing fees is lawful and that this is simply the way the system works.

“The fee structure of the immigration services is mandated by Congress to be on a paying-its-way basis, with the underlying principle being that the American taxpayer should not be called on to subsidize the cost of immigration. And we certainly support that,” said Jack Martin, special projects director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, D.C.

But immigration lawyers say that at a time when citizenship services are of particularly poor quality, the fee increases are hard to justify.

Critics question why the Bush administration would want to raise fees for immigration-related services before addressing the mounting backlog of residency visas and citizenship applications.

The number of pending applications for such things as replacing lost green cards and obtaining citizenship has shot up nearly 60%, to about 6.2 million nationwide since 2001, according to government statistics. In Southern California, about 90,000 citizenship applications are pending.

The new fees are intended to help the government “tread water,” said Crystal Williams, senior director of liaison and information for the Washington-based American Immigration and Lawyers Assn. “It’s not going to clear the backlog. It will just be more money from the pockets of applicants that goes toward extremely bad service.”

Immigration advocates have long urged Congress to supplement immigration-related fees to help pay for the increase.

Williams said the higher fees “don’t belong on the backs of the applicants.”

Despite hardships, community leaders said, most prospective citizens had no choice but to somehow find the money to apply for naturalization, and they were encouraging immigrants to do so.

U.S. citizenship provides immigrants the right to vote, the right to unify their families and the right to passports, as well as a range of medical, educational and job privileges.

“If you don’t become a citizen, you don’t receive any benefits,” said Loc Nguyen, director of the immigration and refugees department for Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, a community outreach group. “Now you’re telling me that you are increasing fees? Of course I’m going to suffer. But am I going to not apply? I’m damned if I do. I’m damned if I don’t.”

Nguyen said many of the immigrants that his organization served were poor, elderly or disabled, and typically borrowed the cash, or spent more than a year saving to pay for the services connected to their citizenship applications.

Leon Shkrab, director of social programs for the Habad Russian Community Center, a group that works with the citizenship services bureau and helps prepare applicants for naturalization, said many refugees were particularly anxious because, after seven years with refugee visa status, they would lose all benefits.

“This is why they wait eagerly for citizenship,” Shkrab said. “Even though fees will increase, people have no choice but to submit the application.”