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 Atlanta officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks in the back after the fleeing man pointed a stun gun in his direction is going to be charged. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard made the announcement about Garrett Rolfe during a news conference Wednesday.
With ridership down some 85 percent — and a return to normal still a way off — data suggests New Yorkers are swapping their MetroCards for car keys and taking to the streets.
Cheddar's Need2Know Podcast for Wed., June 17, 2020.
Cheddar's Need2Know Podcast for Tues., June 16, 2020.
The Trump administration has sued former national security adviser John Bolton to block the publication of a book that the White House says contains classified information.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order on policing following weeks of national protests after the death of George Floyd.
Rosemary Ketchum becomes the first transgender person elected to city council in West Virginia. Ketchum's new role as councilwoman in Wheeling, WV comes as the U.S. Supreme Court said the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ from workplace discrimination.
California congressman, Eric Swalwell told Cheddar on Tuesday he isn't excited about former National Security Advisor John Bolton's upcoming tell-all about the White House after he refused to testify during impeachment proceedings.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that existing civil rights law protects LGBT people from discrimination in employment.
Stocks swung solidly higher on Wall Street in afternoon trading Monday after the Federal Reserve said it would begin buying individual corporate bonds, the central bank’s latest move to prop up volatile financial markets through the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
