Thread: New immigration leaders send letter on Immg.Fee Increase

Press Release

Media Contact: Kyra Jennings, 202.225.3072, kyra.jennings@mail.house.gov

New Committee Leaders Send Letter on Immigration Fee Increase


Letter Signed by Chairs of Senate and House Judiciary Committees and Immigration Subcommittees


January 22, 2007

Washington, DC - Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), incoming Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, today sent a letter to the Director of the United State Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) questioning a possible fee increase of 250% for processing naturalization and immigration applications and requesting more information.



She was joined on the letter by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), incoming Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), incoming Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Citizenship, and Representative John Conyers (D-MI), incoming Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.



Below is the text of the letter:



January 22, 2006



Dr. Emilio Gonzalez

Director, USCIS

Department of Homeland Security

20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20529



Dear Dr. Gonzalez:



We understand that the United State Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is considering a fee increase for processing naturalization and immigration applications.



As the incoming chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and the Immigration Subcommittees, we look forward to working with you to ensure that USCIS has the necessary resources to carry out its mission. However, we are concerned by reports of the scope and scale of the fee increase. For example, we understand that the fees on naturalization applications may more than double, from the current fee of $400 to between $600 and $1,000. As the Congressional committees of jurisdiction, we want to better understand the extraordinary circumstances that could justify such a massive increase.



We hope that USCIS will not finalize the increase until our committees have had an opportunity to review the process by which your agency determined the need for and the scope of the fee increase. We would like to examine the cost estimates used by USCIS to establish the fees for various applications. We also wish to analyze the assumptions and methodology used by the agency to arrive at these estimates.



Please inform us in writing of your plans to issue a federal register notice for this increase and any plans you may have to implement this increase, including the fee amounts planned and the timeline for implementation, no later than February 2, 2007. We look forward to working with you to ensure that changes in the current fee structure are fair and reasonable for the applicants and USCIS.



Sincerely,



Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA)

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca ... rease.html

Her email link:
http://www.house.gov/lofgren/emailform.shtml

Additional info on her:

Rep. Zoe Lofgren to Chair Immigration Subcommittee
Congress Daily last week confirmed reports that Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) will be the new chairwoman of House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims. An immigration lawyer from San Jose, CA, Lofgren handled immigration issues in the 1970s as a staff assistant to Rep. Don Edwards, her predecessor, and specialized in immigration law. She also taught immigration law at the University of Santa Clara School of Law.

Rep. Lofgren supports comprehensive immigration reform and, according to her own words, "helped to lead the fight against H.R. 4437," the enforcement-only immigration bill when it passed the House of Representatives in December 2005. Lofgren also opposed other enforcement legislation such as the Secure Fence Act of 2006 (H.R. 6061), the Community Protection Act of 2006 (H.R. 6094), and the Immigration Law Enforcement Act of 2006 (H.R. 6095).

According to The ContraCosta Times, Lofgren says she will use the House version of the McCain-Kennedy bill as the starting point to build consensus. "But that's not the ending point," she stressed. "That's just the beginning." Sponsored by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), the McCain-Kennedy bill would grant amnesty to illegal aliens and create a guest-worker program to import up to 400,000 foreign workers into the United States each year

What difference does it make WHAT they charge for LEGAL immigrants at the FRONT door when the back door is wide open????

If the fee increase actually makes the legal immigration system work better, I'm all for it. I know several recent legal immigrants, and they all complain that the process is severely flawed. But hey, it's the Government... why's that any surprise?