But more than three months later, immigrants and their attorneys say they can’t figure out whether they owe the money or how to pay the fee.The confusion is the latest example of how the Trump administration’s efforts to curb legal pathways for immigrants have trapped people in a bureaucratic maze, according to immigration attorneys and advocates who are struggling to advise their clients. The fear is that these new fees create a way for the Trump administration to deny asylum claims and quickly deport some immigrants.
“It just feels like people are being cornered from every angle, and the lack of clarity just causes that much more fear and intimidation,” said Robin Nice, an immigration attorney in Boston. “It’s hard to know if it’s weaponized incompetence in how they’re rolling it out, or if it’s straight up malicious … but it’s really hard to advise clients.”
The fees, which are new, were part of the GOP’s domestic policy and tax law President Donald Trump signed on July 4, but the administration’s rollout has been plagued by mishaps: The two agencies collecting the fees initially released different instructions, and only one has offered a vehicle to pay the annual fee.
The new $100 fee for every year an asylum application is pending, which is in addition to a new $100 application fee, is in part, designed to deter mass migration and limit access to legal pathways Republicans say have long been abused and have contributed to a massive backlog in the immigration courts.