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.
Student Debt Crisis was "inundated with calls" after filing a lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for failing to properly oversee the companies that manage federal student loan debt.
The energy sector is in "a really exciting time," Chairman Neil Chatterjee told Cheddar Monday. His agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is charged with overseeing the power grid.
It's been 54 years since the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and for 50 years it stood as rock-solid. All that changed with a 2013 Supreme Court case in Shelby v Holder, where judges ruled that states no longer require federal approval to impose new voting laws as previously codified in the Voting Rights Act.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, November 29, 2019.
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Phil Arballo, a Mexican-American businessman competing in the Democratic primary for California's 22nd district House seat, says he's received $300,000 donations in light of GOP Rep. Devin Nunes pro-Trump.
With "no sign of slowdown" in the concentrations of greenhouse gases according to a report by the UN's World Meteorological Organization, the international body renews its call for drastically reducing emissions globally.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, November 26, 2019.
After months of speculation, former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg made it official that he's running for president, and the media outlet he founded has outlined how they plan on covering the race from this point forward.
