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 entrepreneur sued the New York State Board of Elections in April after it canceled the state's presidential primary by stripping Sen. Bernie Sander's name from the ballot.
The U.S. Education Department has finalized campus sexual assault rules that bolster the rights of students who are accused of assault and harassment, reduce legal liabilities for schools and colleges, and narrow the scope of cases they will be required to investigate.
One day after saying that the COVID-19 task force would be winding down, President Donald Trump says it would continue on indefinitely, but focus on rebooting the economy.
David Banmiller, an airline industry insider and former CEO of Pan Am, doesn't like referring to the $25 billion of relief the airline industry got from the federal government as a 'bailout.'
An Associated Press analysis finds that taking the New York metropolitan area’s progress against the coronavirus out of the equation shows the rest of the U.S. moving in the wrong direction, with the infection rate rising even as states move to lift their lockdowns.
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street but gave up about half of their early gains in a late-afternoon bout of selling. The S&P 500 rose 0.9% Tuesday after being up 2% earlier.
Vice President Mike Pence says the White House coronavirus task force could wind down its work by early June.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told Cheddar on Tuesday that they were not prepared to switch so quickly and have been working well with what they have, but online learning simply isn't the same as teaching in person.
The trip means a small army of advisers, logistical experts and security staff will also resume regularly hitting the road and taking a measure of risk to assist Trump.
Stocks are rallying worldwide on Tuesday as more countries relaxed restrictions on businesses, raising hopes for a recovery from the historic plunge sweeping the global economy.
