Raised fees for legal immigration ‘incentivizes’ illegal crossings: expert

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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services first fee increase in over seven years went into effect at the start of April, a change that could further fuel illegal border crossings.

"If it is faster and easier and less costly to come here illegally than it is legally, then rational human beings will do that," Lora Ries, the Director of the Heritage Foundation's Border Security and Immigration Center, told Fox News Digital.

The comments come after the first USCIS fee increase for some legal immigrants requests took effect at the beginning of April, making applications for work authorizations, registering as a permanent resident, and even finance applications more expensive.

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Mosammat Rasheda Akter, originally from Bangladesh, holds her 7 month-old daughter Fahmida as she recites the Pledge of Allegiance after officially becoming a U.S. citizen during a naturalization ceremony at the New York Public Library, July 3, 2018 in New York City.

In a press release explaining the increases, which were finalized in January, the USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou said the agency will use the new revenues to "improve customer experience and stem backlog growth." The release went on to say, "For the first time in over seven years, USCIS is updating our fees to better meet the needs of our agency, enabling us to provide more timely decisions to those we serve,"

"Despite years of inadequate funding, the USCIS workforce has made great strides in customer service, backlog reduction, implementing new processes and programs, and upholding fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve."

But according to Ries, the funding issues plaguing USCIS result from the system being unfair to legal immigrants and the taxpayers, who help fund the backlog of free asylum claims filed by those who cross the border illegally.

"USCIS is supposed to be a fee funded agency that’s built on the sound principle that if you are applying for an immigrant benefit, you should pay for that application, not the taxpayers," Ries said, adding that it "costs money to adjudicate" the applications of illegal migrants, who are not paying the fees when they claim asylum.

Fairfax: USCIS US United States Citizenship and Immigration Services field main office entrance in Virginia with sign -file photo. (iStock)

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"There’s literally no cost to file a frivolous asylum application," Ries explained, noting that the money it costs to process such cases will get shifted to increased fees for legal migrants or the taxpayers.

Some of those fees, such as an I-129L Petition for nonimmigrant workers, have now risen nearly $1,000, with that fee changing from $460 to $1,385 under the new rules. Other fees, such as the I-129F Petition for Alien Fiance, saw less dramatic increases, with that fee rising from $535 to $675. Filers can save $50 on applications that are submitted online, USCIS noted, while a few fees such as the I-90 Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card saw small decreases in the fee.

Meanwhile, Ries noted that the Biden administration has opted to keep the fee to apply for asylum at zero while ushering in a rule to speed up the process for immigrants to receive work permits. 

Put together, more people will likely opt for the more affordable way to attempt to enter the country, Ries said.

President Joe Biden speaks with US Customs and Border Protection officers as he visits the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on January 8, 2023.  (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

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"They are truly incentivizing what people apply for," Ries said. "They are directly determining, incentivizing, and encouraging people to apply for asylum, to apply for work permits, to apply to naturalize… we want U.S. citizens and we want people to want to become citizens and be loyal to America, but not through funding manipulation."

Reached for comment by Fox News Digital, a White House spokesperson pointed to the failed bipartisan immigration bill, arguing the administration "spent months negotiating in good faith to deliver the toughest and fairest bipartisan border security bill in decades because we need Congress to make significant policy reforms and to provide additional funding to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system."

"Congressional Republicans chose to put partisan politics ahead of our national security and rejected what border agents have said they need," the spokesperson said. ":Without significant action from Congress, DHS is maximizing its enforcement operations. Since May 12, DHS has removed or returned more than 660,000 individuals – the vast majority of whom crossed the Southwest Border. 660,000 removals and returns is more than every full fiscal year since 2011. Encounters in between ports of entry remain significantly lower than December as a result of enhanced enforcement efforts by the U.S. Government and our international partners, and seasonal trends."

A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the agency believed the new fees were unlikely to cause an incentive to illegally cross the border, arguing that the risks associated the the route "outweigh" the benefits of legal migration.

The spokesperson also disputed that taxpayers would have to foot the bill for processing applications, noting that 96% of the agency's budget is covered by the fees and that there will also still be fee waiver criteria available for low-income and vulnerable populations.