Immigration advocates in the national capital region said a Bush administration proposal to nearly double the cost of becoming of citizen will prevent poor immigrants from becoming Americans.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Wednesday that it wants to raise the application fees from $330 to $595, an 86 percent increase. The cost for a temporary resident to register as a permanent resident will go up from $180 to $1,370, 661 percent.
CIS Director Emilio Gonzalez said the increases will pay to improve technology, increase security and speed up the application process by 20 percent. Applicants will get better service from the agency, Gonzalez said.
Edgar Riviera, of the Tenants and Workers United in Alexandria, said the higher fees will destroy the dreams of hardworking immigrants who want to become part of society.
“It’s an attack on the working poor and working families,” Riviera said.
Jamie Contreras of the National Capital Immigration Coalition said the increases were designed to deter people from becoming citizens, but immigrants will continue to do what it takes to become citizens.
Gonzalez, who is an immigrant himself, said the higher fees won’t lower the number of applications the agency receives each year.
“This is a growth business,” he said.
The $2 billion CIS agency is often criticized for being inefficient and unable to properly screen the nearly 5 million visa and citizenship applications it handles each year. The agency operates entirely from the money it earns from its fees, and a federal report in 2004 said the CIS was underfunded. The higher fees are expected to raise an additional $1 billion a year.
The proposed fees would go into effect in June, Gonzalez said.
