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 British pound sterling fell sharply after British PM Boris Johnson announced he was asking for Parliament to be suspended from mid-September until mid-October ー a highly controversial move that critics say is intended to keep MPs from avoiding a no-deal Brexit and plunged the British government into crisis once again, two months before a looming deadline.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
The inventor of the nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose believes the $570 million judgment against Johnson & Johnson shows that states are taking the crisis "seriously."
On the back of a groundbreaking partnership with data heavyweights Deloitte and Nielsen, cannabis industry intelligence company Headset on Monday announced the launch of its real time analytics tool in the province of Alberta, marking its official debut in the Canadian market. Stakeholders anticipate the data Headset Insights generates ー first in Alberta, and eventually across all of Canada ー will serve as a road map for companies outside of cannabis looking to penetrate the industry, and for Canadian cannabis companies as the market grows more diverse and competitive.
An Oklahoma judge ruled that Johnson & Johnson pay over $570 million in damages — a far cry from the $17 billion requested — for causing the opioid crisis in the Sooner state.
The U.S. president reiterated his position that Russia should be invited back into the coalition of the world's largest economies despite the lingering issue of Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territory.
Speaking from the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, Trump said that Chinese negotiators had called U.S. officials and requested a new round of talks.
Gravy Analytics, a location-based marketing technology company, analyzed the smartphone data of people who attended the 111 solo Democratic presidential candidate events held in June and July.
The trade war between the U.S. and China escalated throughout the day Friday, culminating with President Trump announcing that the U.S. will significantly hike tariffs on nearly all Chinese imports. The decision came in response to China proclaiming earlier in the day that it would hit $75 billion worth of U.S. goods with new retaliatory tariffs.
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.
