FEE HIKES SOUGHT ON IMMIGRANT SERVICES

Miami Herald, The (FL) - Wednesday, February 4, 2004
Author: DAVID OVALLE, dovalle@herald.com

Federal officials announced Tuesday a plan to raise the average cost of immigration applications more than $50, the largest increase in six years.

The hike in fees, the first since 2002, is needed to pay for added security measures following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and to speed up the time it takes to process applications, federal officials said.

But immigration activists criticized the fees as placing an unjustified financial burden on immigrants.

According to federal rules, the increases will not go into effect until the public has had 30 days to offer feedback.

Eduardo Aguirre, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the increases are necessary to reform an overburdened system.

``Without it, the applications backlog is certain to grow, processing times will lengthen and service will deteriorate,'' Aguirre said in a statement.

Immigration officials say that the average cost of about three dozen immigration applications will rise $55.

The increase is the largest since 1998 when the average hike per form was $70. The fee for one of the most commonly sought-after forms, an application to replace a green card, is scheduled to rise from $130 to $185.

Immigration attorneys and activists said the increases would fall unfairly on low-income immigrants who already wait too long to have applications processed.

Rosa Kasse, who heads Hispanic Coalition, a Miami-based group, said that immigrants are paying for the added bureaucracy created by folding the former Immigration and Naturalization Service into the Department of Homeland Security last year.

``They gave more responsibility to the agency but they have not been getting the funding to comply with those rules and regulations created and approved by a Republican Congress,'' Kasse said. ``[The fee increases] will cause hardship to the low-income immigrants. But it will not deter immigration.''

BIG BACKLOGS

A recent report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found that backlogs have continued despite a higher expenditure by the federal government in an effort to shave time off wait periods.

According to the report, 6.2 million applications for a variety of immigration services were pending at the end of September, a 59 percent increase from 2001. That report also suggested that the current fees were not enough to cover the backlog.

President Bush has said he wants to cut the wait time for the processing of applications to six months or less. Currently, the application process can drag on for years.

``The wait is too long,'' said Russ Knocke, a spokesman for CIS. ``And we're working feverishly to reduce the backlog and we believe we will by the end of 2006.''

Knocke said a fee increase is crucial because CIS currently loses about $21 per application.

`MISSING ELEMENT'

``I would hesitate to say that [funding] is the one missing element to our backlog reduction plan,'' he said. ``It really is a puzzle, it's multiple pieces coming together.''

The rate increase will also fund technology to streamline the immigration process and improve security, officials say.

Recently, CIS introduced an Internet-based appointment system aimed at reducing the dreaded lines outside Miami's immigration building, and a toll-free telephone customer service system.

Miami immigration attorney Michael Bander said that CIS should concentrate more on training officers and cutting bureaucracy from the application process than raising rates. He noted that some of his clients have waited more than two years to resolve their cases.

The rate increases are a ``sad commentary on the state of our immigration system,'' Bander said. ``It's not an unrealistic goal, but is a few years acceptable to the public?''