Smith and Grassley to DHS: Who Will Cover the Cost of Administrative Amnesty?

Washington, D.C. - House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) today sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano expressing concern about the Department’s plan to grant deferred action to illegal immigrants, particularly with regard to how the plan will be funded without imposing additional taxes on American citizens. The letter also raises fiscal concerns of the new policy relating to the management of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a fee-based agency.

The letter urges Secretary Napolitano to clarify the rationale behind the fee assessment for illegal immigrants and to explain why this plan puts the interests of illegal immigrants ahead of the interests of legal immigrants and American taxpayers.

Below are excerpts from the letter to Secretary Napolitano. Read the full letter here.

“Historically, the refusal of USCIS to charge enough in application/processing fees to cover the actual costs of processing those applications resulted in an enormous backlog of legal immigration benefits applications and in very long processing wait times for legal immigrants and aspiring U.S. citizens.  Per USICS request, Congress provided funds to USCIS specifically to hire personnel to reduce that backlog.

“The decision not to charge a fee for form I-821D processing threatens a return to enormous backlogs and another request to Congress for appropriated funds.  It is wrong to put the interests of illegal immigrants ahead of the interests of legal immigrants and U.S. citizens.  And it is an additional insult to make U.S. taxpayers foot the bill for this massive amnesty program. 

“For the sake of preserving our immigration system and ensuring that policies are fiscally sound, we would like to understand the Department’s rationale for the fee assessment for illegal immigrants who will benefit from the directive.  We deserve honesty and accountability, and seek to ensure that legal immigrants and taxpayers will not be hurt by this faulty plan.”