Washington, D.C. – HIAS, the
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, is concerned about the U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) proposed increase in the application
fee for citizenship.  Under the proposal, citizenship application fees
would be increased from $400 to $675, an increase of 69%.  Other
immigration filing fees would be increased by an average of 66%.  Fees
for a family of four hoping to naturalize would be prohibitive.

“At a time when the President has made immigration one of his top
domestic priorities and has stated his support for local and national
initiatives to advance immigrant integration, this proposal would
create a huge barrier to that goal,” says Gideon Aronoff, president and
CEO of HIAS.  “Steep hikes in fees such as those proposed would place
an extraordinary burden on hardworking, low-income immigrant families
and other vulnerable immigrant populations who seek to become citizens.”

HIAS and others in the Jewish community have long been actively
engaged in advocacy around citizenship and immigrant integration.  Ten
years ago, HIAS launched the Citizenship Across America project, a
comprehensive, nationwide program designed to encourage and assist
people eligible for citizenship to move as successfully and as quickly
as possible through the naturalization process.   

“Although we encourage USCIS in its stated goals to improve services
and systems and to shorten processing times, a fee increase of this
magnitude poses particular obstacles for many immigrant families,
especially low-income families, many of whom as a result would be
discouraged from applying for citizenship,” says Aronoff.  “The
Biblical imperative to welcome the stranger is part of our culture and
is our moral obligation to immigrant families.  Helping them become
citizens is the highest form of achieving that goal.  Any proposal
which creates further hardships and obstacles in maintaining those
traditions does not foster our sense of truly being a welcoming nation.”

“The funding structure whereby USCIS is 99% fee-based is
unreasonable and untenable,” says Aronoff.  “We propose that the Bush
administration and Congress fund a portion of the USCIS budget through
annual congressional appropriations so that the federal government can
provide essential and timely services to immigrants that will ensure
that they have a realistic chance at becoming U.S. citizens, which is
in our national interest.”