The following letter was written by the State Bar of Texas Committee on Laws Relating to Immigration and Nationality in response to the proposed fee increase for USCIS applications.  The comment period for this proposal has since passed.

March 7, 2004

Director

Regulations and Forms Services Division

Department of Homeland Security

US Citizenship and Immigration Services

425 I Street NW, Room 4034

Washington, DC 20536

Re:     CIS No. 2233-02

          Comments on Proposed Fee Increase

Dear  Madam or Sir:

I am writing this letter on behalf of the State Bar of Texas Committee on Laws Relating to Immigration and Nationality to share our concerns about the recent proposed fee increases for the processing of immigration applications and petitions as reported in the Federal Register.   The Committee on Laws Relating to Immigration and Nationality is comprised of lawyers, social service providers, and community members concerned with issues relating to immigration. The Committee studies current and proposed laws pertaining to immigration and nationality, and the impact upon the public arising from these laws.  We make recommendations for improvements to our country’s immigration laws. 

In January of 2004, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services proposed raising the application fees.  We write to express our strong opposition to the proposed fee increases recently reported in the Federal Register.  Almost a year ago Eduardo Aguirre, Jr., Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, told Congress that his agency would reduce the application backlogs to six months or less by 2006.  A recent report from the General Accounting Office states that 6.2 million applications were pending at the end of September 2003, a fifty nine percent increase from the 3.9 million awaiting action two years earlier.  This delay occurred despite a $160 million dollar allocation by the Congress to reduce these backlogs.

We are familiar with the tremendous backlogs that characterize the US Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS"), and oppose any further fee increases without a serious effort to first ease the backlogs and competently adjudicate applications currently pending before this agency.  United States citizens and permanent residents who have paid for the adjudications of immigration petitions and applications filed for their parents, spouses, and children are not receiving decisions for several years on mostly routine applications.  United States employers are forced to wait between six months to several years on applications filed to seek temporary or permanent status for key foreign personnel.   In addition, voluntary agencies that provide assistance to indigent immigrants are tremendously concerned about the impact of these fee increases on lower-income indigent immigrants who find it very difficult to adjust their status or naturalize due to such high costs.  A large number of immigrants served by these non-profit community based organizations will be discouraged from filing applications.

In the past, the predecessor INS agency, raised fees several times while promising to deal with substantial backlogs, but the increased fees have done nothing to alleviate these problems.   According to the Federal Register, the amount of the fee increases are extremely high, increasing by over 25% for most applications, without a resulting enhancement in services.   While the US CIS states that such an increase is necessary to meet the requisite cost of completing new and pending applications, a study by the General Accounting Office states that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services did not know the cost of completing new or pending applications or its own future administrative costs.

While our Committee welcomes Director Aguirre's pledge to substantially reduce backlogs and provide improved customer service, we have not observed any improved  US CIS efforts.  The backlogs grew longer during this past year.  The CIS seeks further cost of living adjustments in the future.  Without demonstration of the ability to reduce backlogs and provide appropriate customer service, such future fee increases without Congressional oversight seem irresponsible. 

While our Committee shares your concerns regarding the quality of service and reduction of backlogs, it is unclear how the proposed fee increases will address that issue.  Our Committee is further concerned with a differential and disparate impact of these fees on indigent immigrants.  We recommend that the Service refrain from implementing any new fee increases until a specific plan is underway to appreciably reduce the tremendous backlogs now in place.   

Respectfully submitted,

Paul Parsons

Chairman