This New Act Could Make Applying Applying For Citizenship Way Cheaper

The barriers for U.S. Citizenship are largely immeasurable — from immigrants traveling thousands of miles by foot to apply for asylum, to folks applying for citizenship right after moving to the nation for work. Nevertheless one barrier is universal: expense.


Today, it charges $725 for legal permanent residents to simply apply for U.S. Citizenship. In 1989, it was just $60. So, on June 13, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez and California Representative Norma Torres introduced a bill that could change that.


The plan, called the Citizenship Affordability Act, would eliminate application fees entirely for people who earn far less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line ($24,280 annually for a family member of one) and would decrease fees for people who earn 200-250 percent of the federal poverty line ($24,280 to $30,350 annually for a family member of one). The bill currently has only Democratic co-sponsors in both the Residence and the Senate, also it would likely need Republican co-sponsorship sort in attempt to pass via Republican-controlled Senate. Although, this sort of legislation could serve as a template for future legislation that would reduce the burden on immigrants if Democrats increase control of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2020.


For Rep. Torres, the fight is personal: She was born in Guatemala and any time whenever she was five years old, she and her family member moved to the U.S.


“For minor children, any time your parents file for legal status, there's a box that parents can check for their minor children to also become citizens, although there's a fee involving that. My father could not afford to pay for that for me. So, any time If I [turned] 18, I wasn't automatically a citizen,” she told MTV News. She had to take a test and apply for citizenship as the cost was also high for her father to pay for her citizenship as soon as she first arrived in the country.


“I had to actually apply for citizenship as an adult... I grew up in this nation. I don't know Guatemala. This is my community,” she added.


because the law currently stands, there really are a couple of ways someone can decrease the cost of applying for citizenship: the fee is waived entirely for someone who earns much less than 150 percent of the federal poverty line, which is about $18,210 for a solitary person per year; in the event you earn between 150 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty line, between $18,210 and $24,280 annually, your fee is cut from $725 to $405. That’s not good enough, according to lawmakers.


“It's just such a high fee,” Sen. Menendez told MTV News. “Making it more hard [for someone to be a citizen] isn't what we should be doing. Making it more possible for people who desire to be a citizen — and we aspire to be a citizen — have the ability to be a citizen is what we should be doing.”


“Becoming a American citizen should not depend on whether or not you could afford a costly application fee,” he added in a press release announcing the bill.


However opponents to the bill mention that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has to gather fees — case in point, since the USCIS doesn’t receive much direct governmental support or appropriations, fees are the way it earns most of its money.


“When this company waives fees, it’s hurtful to the excellent class of the business and it also pushes fees off from one population to another,” David North of the Center for Immigration Research, a business which advocates for reduced immigration, told United Press International. “If you can’t get fees from sort A, then you must run up the fees for groups B, C, and D. So there really is a reason to be cautious with waivers.”


Torres doesn’t think that profitability for the USCIS should even be a question as soon as we’re considering citizenship, though.


“I don't think that we should be looking at [how we can] profit from people that are going via method of becoming citizens,” Torres mentioned. “I absolutely think that those who have the means and can afford to pay for the complete fee should do that. Although for the poorest in our communities, why not help them become full-fledged citizens?”


Menendez agrees. “Citizenship promotes integration, civic responsibility, and also a sense of community, which ultimately advantages all Americans,” he mentioned in the press release. “Yet for also several aspiring Residents of the United States, the cost of naturalization is a significant barrier to becoming a citizen.”


Menendez added to MTV News that the hefty price tag for citizenship doesn’t even include the cost of transportation to the testing center, the materials needed for the test, or the time taken off of work, which several legal permanent residents simply cannot afford.


“The reality is that we have a movement by this administration to prepare it even more complicated to ultimately get a waiver,” Menendez mentioned, adding: “I desire to move in a different direction from this administration which is all about making it harder to be a citizen, not easier.”