For people seeking work or an escape to a better life in the United States, it's going to cost about two times the current amount, following a move by the Trump administration to hike fees on various immigration applications.
Michelle Mendez, director of defending vulnerable programs at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), calls the move an assault on immigration.
"This rule, these fees that have increased will make it extremely difficult for individuals to become legal immigrants, specifically to become naturalized immigrants, to become citizens," Mendez told Cheddar.
The new fees, which are set to be increased in October, will also gravely impact the world's most at-risk populations seeking asylum in the U.S., Mendez added.
"$50 may seem to be a small fee for many of us. We have to understand that asylum seekers leave their countries, they flee their countries with practically nothing," she said.
While news of the increased fees may be looked on as damning, Mendez said the move is on par with the Trump administration's previous moves to eliminate "access to the legal immigration process."
"During the [presidential] campaign, the rhetoric was very much focused on illegal immigration. We knew that that actually meant they were going to attack illegal and legal immigration," she said.
For Mendez, the idea of increasing fees and making the process even more difficult for people who want to become American is a jab at the foundation upon which the country was built.
"When we limit the opportunity for people to be engaged in the process by being citizens, that really undermines our democracy. That really undermines our democratic process," she stated.
The leaders of Russia and China have put aside their raw-worded disputes with U.S. President Joe Biden long enough to pledge international cooperation on cutting climate-wrecking coal and petroleum emissions.
President Joe Biden is preparing to formally acknowledge that the systematic killing and deportation of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in modern-day Turkey more than a century ago was genocide.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid fell last week to 547,000, a new low since the pandemic struck and a further encouraging sign that layoffs are slowing on the strength of an improving job market.
Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) joined Cheddar to express hope that some of her GOP counterparts join in a bipartisan effort to reform policing in the United States.
President Joe Biden has announced new employer tax credits and other steps to encourage people reluctant to be inoculated to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
President Joe Biden will pledge to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at least in half by 2030 as he convenes a virtual climate summit with 40 world leaders.
A judge overseeing a sweeping lawsuit about homelessness in Los Angeles has ordered the city and county to find shelter for all unhoused residents of Skid Row within 180 days.
After three weeks of testimony, the trial of the former police officer charged with killing George Floyd ended swiftly.
Body camera video shows a Columbus officer fatally shoot a Black teenage girl who swung at two other people with a knife.
As vaccine efforts roll out across the U.S., in-person events are slowly resuming, but many cannabis companies have chosen to host their events online or throw hybrid in-person and virtual events.
