WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee unveiled its portion of Republicans’ massive reconciliation package, introducing a proposal to charge asylum-seekers an application fee for the first time in history.
The 116-page document released on Monday outlines a number of new immigration fees, including a minimum $1,000 application charge for asylum-seekers as well as a $1,000 fee for parolees. The bill would also establish a $3,500 fee for sponsors of unaccompanied children paired with a $2,500 penalty for sponsors who fail to appear in court.
The bill would implement fees for work permits for a slew of applicants, including asylum-seekers with pending cases, parolees, immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, immigrants with deferred enforced departure, and any applicants looking to extend or renew their employment authorization status.
The proposal contains several other proposed fees, such as a $500 application fee for Temporary Protected Status; $250 for visa overstays; $1,500 fee to adjust status to lawful permanent resident, also known as a green card; $100 annual fee while asylum applications remain pending; among others.
In addition to the new fees, the legislation would provide increased funding to agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review. Those funds would specifically be allocated to go toward expanding detention, deportations and enforcement staffing.
As part of staffing efforts, funding would be allocated to hire 10,000 new ICE officers as well as Homeland Security Investigations criminal investigators. The funding would also pave the way for “at least” 1 million deportations through both ground and air transportation.
Funding would be provided for increased detention beds, a return to “Remain in Mexico” policy enforcements, screening for unaccompanied children affiliated with gangs, and the hiring of government lawyers to accelerate the removal of immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Additionally, the bill would carve out $10 million to the Office of Management and Budget as well as the Comptroller General for review of rulemaking activities. It would allocate another $10 million to the OMB for analyzing the compliance costs of certain regulations.
The proposal is one component of Republicans’ massive reconciliation package aimed toward passing President Donald Trump’s policies on the border, energy and taxes in one fell swoop.
The immigration policies included in the Judiciary portion go hand in hand with proposals unveiled by the House Homeland Security Committee earlier this week that would provide a total of $68.8 billion toward border funding.
Much of those funds would go toward border wall construction, surveillance tools, updated facilities for the CBP, and more.
The Judiciary Committee is set to mark up the proposal on Wednesday afternoon, the first step toward advancing it to the House floor. It comes as GOP lawmakers scramble to get all components of their reconciliation package drafted and finalized before the Memorial Day recess — an ambitious timeline that could hit some snags due to some remaining sticking points in other committees.