Thread: local Immigrants Look At Cost, Shake Heads

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... 0568c.html -


Local immigrants look at cost, shake heads





02/01/2007 02:25 AM CST

Hernán Rozemberg
Express-News Immigration Writer

If she can't save up enough to pay the current application fee, Lupita Rivero fears she might as well forget ever trying to become a U.S. citizen.
The government has made numerous fee boosts in the past, but never as steep as the current proposed changes.


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Under the plan, set to go into effect next year, people looking to get "green cards," or permanent residency, would see application fees jump from $325 to $905 per person.

And residents aiming for citizenship would face an increase from $330 to $595.

The agency responsible for immigration benefits, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, says it essentially operates on application fees and needs the money to meet increased costs.

But immigrants and their advocates in San Antonio countered that countless applicants soon will turn into would-be applicants because they'll find the new fees unaffordable.

Ironically, they said, all the government is doing is making it harder for people who are trying to do things legally, dealing with reams of paperwork and years-long waits for decisions on applications.

Rivero, an independent house cleaner, and husband Angel are permanent residents bringing in about $700 a week. But between house and car payments, other bills and taking care of daughter Montserrat, an eighth-grader, they've been barely able to save enough over the years for their citizenship applications.

They're hoping to be able to have enough soon to apply under the current fees, but they'd never be able to pay the proposed higher fees, said Rivero, 36, who's originally from Guanajuato, Mexico.

"I know that if it's tough enough for us as it is, it's going to leave so many other people completely out of reach because they make a lot less than we do," she said.

Were it not for the life insurance she collected after her husband's death two years ago, Adela "Adelita" López also would be forced to put aside her long-awaited dream of U.S. citizenship.

She still has three years to wait until she becomes eligible to apply, so unless the proposed changes are shot down, she likely will have to pay the $595 fee.

"Oh my God! Are you serious? That much?" asked López, 56, a native of Veracruz, Mexico. "Well, I'll have to manage somehow. As immigrants, the only way we can truly earn respect in this country is by becoming citizens."

The leading fear in immigrant advocacy circles is that as a result of the fee increase, citizenship applications actually will decrease.

Such a move would send a paradoxical message from the government, which deports undocumented migrants while lauding those that come here legally, said John Blatz, director of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Educational and Legal Services in San Antonio.

But at least one migrant advocate is willing to give the government the benefit of the doubt.

There will be many who will feel the pain of paying higher fees, but there's reason to believe the resources they provide will at least allow the government to reduce its infamous application backlog and reputation for incompetence, said Magali Candler, a Houston lawyer and chairwoman of the Texas chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Great...just one more stupid thing like this to happen! All this is going to do is encourage more immigrants to break the law and come here illegally.
Obviously it doesn't pay to wait in line and do it right. How about this: Why not TAX HEAVILY or better yet, seize any funds being transferred out of the country by ILLEGALS, seize their real estate for ones who have been deported and use the money for this instead of raising the costs of the immigrants who are trying to do it the right and legal way.
Wow! and just think, they might actually help the citizens with auctioning off assests seized by illegals.

They should not be able to raise the fee on people who are here already legally.
but illegal should pay the new fee, if they can afford to pay someone 1500.00 to $2,000 to get here illegaly then they should be able to pay alittle more to get a green card. they have not raised these fee's in years. This is why they are doing it, and they are getting ready to legalize a whole lot of people.

I did't say amnesty, but I think they will give alot of people green cards