Early this month, a woman with a pending asylum claim logged into the government system to check the status of her family’s case.
Her stomach dropped when she saw a charge for a $100 fee, and that the deadline to pay it had already passed. Her family hadn’t received a notification, and she wouldn’t have found out about the missed payment if she hadn’t checked that day after a conversation with a friend who had just paid the fee. Valerie — who POLITICO is not fully identifying because of her fears related to the case — wants to pay the fee but has been unable to despite three separate calls with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services representatives. She worries her family could lose their work permits, or even be deported.
“I was paralyzed,” Valerie said. “I feel trepid. I’m having some difficulty sleeping and eating, but I’m trying to be strong for my husband and for my kids.”
Valerie’s situation illustrates the concerns immigration attorneys and advocacy groups have raised for months as the Trump administration rolled out new immigration fees established by last year’s Republican tax and domestic policy law. Advocates, in lawsuits, have warned that the troubled implementation — marked by a messy rollout and apparent notification glitches that leave some applicants receiving notices late via the U.S. postal mail or not at all — could result in asylum cases being dismissed for failure to pay the $100 annual fee.
Those fears were turbocharged this spring when the Trump administration codified the fee and required asylum seekers to pay it within 30 days of notification or have their asylum application automatically rejected. Those who fail to pay will also be denied work permits and face increased risk of deportation, consequences the Trump administration argues were necessary to prevent asylum seekers from remaining in the system indefinitely with unpaid dues.
Valerie, who lives in Florida with her family and works for a nonprofit that promotes tourism in the state, fled Brazil in 2020 during the first Trump administration. She, her husband and their teenage daughter all have work permits, which she fears could now be in jeopardy because they didn’t pay the fee.
“Asylum seekers are scared that despite trying to do everything right, even if they’re extremely diligent, and even if they check the mail and check their inbox, that they may still fall out of the asylum system and workforce because they won’t get notice or get their notice too late,” said Conchita Cruz, a co-founder and co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, a membership organization that serves asylum seekers in the U.S.
The asylum fees are just one pillar in the Trump administration’s broader efforts to speed up the deportation of unauthorized immigrants and those with temporary status who have been in the U.S. for years waiting for their case to make its way through the system. Republicans have long argued that the temporary legal pathways have been abused, fueling the backlog in the immigration courts.
The administration is in an ongoing lawsuit with immigration groups, led by the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, which sued last year after hearing from thousands of members who were confused about the new policy and how to pay. The administration has since clarified the payment system, but advocates say they have continued to identify new issues, including with the notification process. Valerie, as an impacted ASAP member, is mentioned in the lawsuit, which says the group began hearing from asylum seekers on July 6 who saw their payment period had expired.
The Trump administration, in a filing last week, said it had sent annual asylum fee notices to more than 1.2 million asylum seekers. As of July 15, USCIS reported nearly 987,000 successful fee payments, and 816 “payment failures.” By July 21, the agency said 227,186 cases had entered an “Annual Fee Unpaid Case State,” a group that advocates worry may include people who remain unaware that they owe the fee.
USCIS did not respond to a request for comment. But in a filing last week, administration lawyers said that the agency’s notice practices “do not require judicial intervention, let alone on an emergency basis.” The Trump administration argued that “despite the plaintiffs’ anecdotal examples of applicants not being aware of having received an [asylum fee] notice, that rate of payments does not indicate that the agency has a problem with sending [asylum fee] notices at all.”
A judge last week partially granted ASAP’s request for a temporary stay, so for now, the Trump administration cannot reject asylum applications or terminate work permits over lack of payment. But the administration continues to seek out payments and has not unlocked the portals of those who have missed the window. The judge will hear from both sides on Thursday, and by Aug. 5 plans to issue a decision on whether the Trump administration will be able to impose its consequences while the case proceeds.
The new fees have also placed a strain on immigration attorneys, who obsessively check client portals for payment notices — adding to the pile of administrative work facing their offices, said Adam Bennett, an immigration attorney in Seattle. While some asylum seekers have received notice in the mail, others can only see whether they owe the money when they log into the fee payment website. But the portal does not show a payment due date, adding to the confusion.
“We know our taxes are due on April 15, we know when our Netflix bill is going to be debited,” said Adam Bennett, an immigration attorney in Seattle. “And these people are simply asking when they can pay their fees, because they don’t want their claim to be denied. And they are not receiving an answer.”
Another immigration attorney, granted anonymity because she is currently helping a client who cannot pay their fee, said she contacted USCIS to get more information on the case but has yet to hear back. And even her clients who have paid remain unsettled.
“I get calls from clients frequently, even clients who paid the fee a few months ago because they’re so scared that they’re going to miss something minor like this that’s not related to their claim, that’s just going to completely jeopardize the case that they're trying to present,” she said. “They’re just scared.”
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