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Trump admin to charge asylum application fee, Dems in an uproar

April 30, 2025 | | Print Article

President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” may include a wholly different kind of barrier than the border wall at the expense of asylum seekers.

Ahead of a Wednesday markup session of the House Judiciary Committee, committee chair Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan (R) released the proposed text that, among other subjects, covered adding new fees to the immigration process. Of the charges that would impact parolees, migrant workers, and those sponsoring unaccompanied children, it was the $1,000 asylum application fee that set snowflakes melting.

“President Trump and House Republicans are committed to restoring immigration integrity, enhancing national security, and reining in the out-of-control administrative state,” read a post from committee Republicans that shared the text seeking to “deliver critical resources to advance both priorities.”

In addition to setting a base fee of $1,000 that would be adjusted based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, the legislation proposed a $1,000 fee for parolees, a $3,500 fee for sponsors of unaccompanied children, and a $550 fee for certain work permit applicants.

As to where the funds would go, half of the asylum fee filed with the Attorney General would be directed to the Executive Office for Immigration Review to use at its discretion, while the other half filed with the Secretary of Homeland Security would be applied to the Immigration Examinations Fee Account of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Any other funds would go to the U.S. Treasury’s general fund.

Amid efforts to restore national sovereignty, secure the border, and deport the millions of illegal aliens, with priority given to violent offenders, the fees followed Trump’s introduction of the $5 million Gold Card that replaced the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, allowing wealthy foreign nationals to take advantage of permanent U.S. residency. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had detailed 1,000 sales in one day, thus raising $5 billion.

Akin to arguments in favor of legalizing marijuana to tamp down on criminal behavior with the added benefit of collecting tax revenue, arguments in favor of introducing an asylum fee suggested it would undercut the business of coyotes smuggling foreign nationals over the border, both reinforcing the legal process of asylum and bolstering safety for all involved.

Of course, as the Democratic Party had seemingly adopted the rest of the world as their base — embracing gang members and terrorist sympathizers with open arms — the potential of reinforcing legal paths to immigration and sealing the border left wide open by the Biden-Harris administration remained an abhorrent proposition.

Instead of exploring whether or not those seeking asylum had any right to do so under current laws and acknowledging the fact the non-governmental organizations were already flooding truckloads of money into supporting foreign nationals, leftists resorted to once again declaring the “orange man bad” in his pursuit of making America safe again while supporters sought to breakthrough the Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Kevin Haggerty
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