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.
President Trump is expected to submit his Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on Monday.
The three favorites are almost "identical" in policy stances, says Rick Hasen, professor of law and political science at UC-Irvine.
The U.S. tariffs on Chinese products that kicked in on Friday are specifically targeted at high-tech goods, an attempt to crack down on alleged intellectual property theft. But they could end up raising the cost of products like e-cigarettes, e-bikes, and smart home devices that are overwhelmingly used by millennials, says Axios reporter Erica Pandey.
U.S. tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods kicked in early Friday, prompting China to respond in kind and escalating tensions between the two countries into what Beijing describes as "the biggest trade war in economic history."
Scott Pruitt, the former Oklahama Attorney General who sued the agency he was leading, resigned on Thursday after facing a series of accusations of ethical violations. "The Senate confirmed Deputy at EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA," Trump announced in a tweet.
The United States and China are poised to hit goods that cross their respective borders with heavy tariffs. But a trade war would likely hurt the American companies that President Trump is trying to protect and undermine the value of U.S. debt globally, says Sara Hsu, economist and associate professor at SUNY-New Paltz.
Two judges, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Barrett, are widely projected to be the front runners in the race to fill Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat in the Supreme Court. But USA Today's David Jackson tells Cheddar he believes there might be a third candidate on the president's radar -- "a Michigan-based appeals court judge named Raymond Kethledge." All three candidates are expected to support overturning Roe v. Wade.
Business Insider reported that Tesla's CEO Elon Musk asked engineers to halt putting Model 3 vehicles through a standard brake and roll alignment test before leaving the factory floor.
The federal investigation into Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal is expanding. AT&T raising prices on DirecTV Now by $5 a month. Trump’s shortlist for replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat on the Supreme Court.
Seven complaints so far have been filed against the Trump administration’s tariffs on steel and aluminum, but it may be years until a ruling comes down. “Even if they do eventually come to a conclusion, Trump might just say, ‘Well, that’s it. That’s the end of the U.S.’s membership in the WTO,’” Megan Cassella, trade reporter at Politico, tells Cheddar.
Russia's shocking win over Spain in the Round of 16 got the team one step closer to its first ever World Cup championship. But while there's still a lot of game left to be played, The Banter's Jeffrey Marcus says, regardless of the outcome, President Vladimir Putin has already achieved his goal.
The Air Force Veteran is running in Texas's 31st Congressional District to unseat Rep. John Carter, who has served in the position since 2003. Her campaign ad, which features the door of the helicopter she was piloting when shot down in Afghanistan, has gone viral with more than 2.5 million views.
