Viewpoint - Viewpoint

With USCIS filing fees spewing higher than the BP oil spill, you'd think the President and Congress would be holding press conferences to propose a legislative fix.

Perhaps their U.S. citizen spouses, parents, sons and daughters, siblings and employers who have sponsored them for green cards and temporary working visas.  Also, the Immigration Examiners who may lose their jobs as ever-higher filing fees deter immigrants from applying for naturalization and other immigration benefits.

Back when I worked as an INS Citizenship Attorney, the cost of applying for U.S. citizenship was a mere $15.  Over the years, the costs doubled and tripled until the filing fees were several hundred dollars.  When the USCIS raised the filing fee for naturalization to $675 in 2007, the number of new applications dropped from 1.4 million to just over 525,000 in a single year.

Yesterday, I accompanied a client to her naturalization interview in San Francisco.  The waiting room was practically empty.  What a depressing change from a few years ago when so many immigrants were applying for U.S. citizenship that the waiting rooms were all SRO.

Under the proposed USCIS rule which will appear in the Federal Register tomorrow, the cost of applying for a green card will increase from $930 to $985.  The application fee for a family petition (I-130) will be $420, up from $355.  The cost of an I-140 employment-based petition will rise over $100 and premium processing fees will increase by 22.5%.

But don't blame the USCIS.

Faced with a $200 million budget shortfall, the agency has no choice but to raise user fees.  Congress, which pays billions of dollars each year to fund the largely-ineffective immigration enforcement system, won't spend a penny to help encourage green card holders to become U.S. citizens.

So, what is the answer?

We propose expanding the system of fines placed on those who commit minor infractions of our immigration laws.  Congress needs to extend and expand the section 245i program which has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the USCIS in the past.

It is obvious to almost everyone who follows immigration laws that the so-called "entitlement bars" are simply not working.  They separate families and discourage persons from applying for immigration benefits.  A more practical solution would be to impose fines on persons who would otherwise qualify for green cards except for a period of "unlawful presence" in the U.S.  Why should those who play by the rules have to pay higher and higher application fees?  Shouldn't those with minor immigration infractions be forced to pay fines to help subsidize the system?

Write to your Senators and Members of Congress.

Tell them that instead of increased application fees, you would like a policy that makes both dollars and sense.

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BIOGRAPHY

Carl Shusterman is the managing attorney of Law Offices of Carl Shusterman based in Los Angeles, CA. He has specialized in immigration law for over 30 years and his six-attorney law firm represents clients in all 50 states. Mr. Shusterman is a 1973 graduate of the UCLA School of Law. He served as an attorney for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) until 1982 when he entered private practice. He is authorized to practice before the Supreme Court of California, the Federal District Court in the Central District of California, the U.S. Court of Appeals in a number of different circuits and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Mr. Shusterman is a former chairman of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Southern California Chapter and served as a member of AILA's National Board of Governors (1988-97). He has chaired numerous AILA Committees, spoken at dozens of AILA Conferences and has contributed a number of scholarly articles to AILA's publications. Mr. Shusterman is a Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law, State Bar of California. He has served as a member of the Immigration and Nationality Law Advisory Commission for the State Bar.

He has been named as one of Best Attorneys in America and as a SuperLawyer for many years. He is a frequent writer and lecturer on immigration law. Mr. Shusterman has testified as an expert witness before the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration in Washington, D.C. His website, www.shusterman.com, receives over 1,000,000 hits each week, and his free, e-mail newsletter has over 60,000 subscribers in more than 150 countries.

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