WASHINGTON — Asylum-seekers waiting to get into the U.S. sleep in small tents set up by the border, depending on volunteers and churches to bring them food and clothing. Some scrape together 25 cents to pay a toll to get on an international bridge where they can use a bathroom.
They’ve fled violence-ridden homelands, often arriving at the U.S. border deep in debt, paying $7,000 or more to smugglers. Under President Donald Trump’s latest immigration proposal, they could face another demand on their meager resources: a fee to process their asylum applications. It’s not known how much the fee might be, but any amount would likely be a burden.
“If we came from our country, it’s because we didn’t have the opportunity to work. We don’t have money,” said Suanny Gomez, a 24-year-old woman from Honduras who waited in a tent with her 5-year-old son, William.
The proposed application fee and other changes are the latest in a series of proposals from an administration struggling to cope with a surge of migrant families arriving at the southern border. The migrants have overwhelmed federal resources and complicated Trump’s efforts to claim victory at the border as he runs for re-election next year.
The fee proposal was part of a memo Trump signed Monday directing his attorney general and acting homeland security secretary to take additional measures to overhaul the asylum system, which he says is plagued by “rampant abuse.” It said the application fee would not exceed the cost of processing applications, but officials did not immediately provide an estimate for what that might be.
Trump is giving Homeland Security Department officials 90 days to come up with regulations to ensure applications are adjudicated within 180 days of filing, except under exceptional circumstances. He called on officials to revoke work authorizations when people are denied asylum and ordered removed from the country. He also wants to bar anyone who has entered or tried to enter the country illegally from receiving a provisional work permit.
Immigration advocates said the fees could push applicants further into poverty.
“Asylum-seekers are fleeing persecution, and have left their families, communities, homes, jobs and possessions behind in order to save their lives,” said Archi Pyati, policy chief at Tahirih Justice Center.
Democratic House Majority leader Steny Hoyer said Trump was undermining American ideals.
“This latest move will do nothing to address the humanitarian crisis on our border of the Trump Administration’s own making,” he said in a statement.
