Help NYers Pay Hefty Immigration Fees, Lawyers Plea

NEW YORK — Lawyers want New Yorkers to help their immigrant neighbors pay the steep fees that could keep them in the country as the federal government forgives fewer of the charges.

The Legal Aid Society has launched an online campaign to raise $25,000 to cover the hefty fees connected to applications for green cards, visas and other documents that give immigrants legal status.

The fundraiser comes at a time when the federal government is giving fewer immigrants a break on the fees — some of which cost more than $1,000 — even as many struggle to afford them, according to Hasan Shafiqullah, the attorney-in-charge of Legal Aid's Immigration Law Unit.

"For people who are trying to do all the right things but are low-income, this is like the final barrier that they need to overcome before they can really become part of our workforce," Shafiqullah said.

While Legal Aid and other nonprofits give immigrants free legal help, they still have to pay fees to obtain and keep documents that give them legal status in the United States.

The fees have increased over time and can run from $410 for a work permit renewal to $1,760 to get a green card through a family member, according to Legal Aid.

Many families try to save up over time for the fees, but sometimes they have to quickly plunk down large amounts of money to meet tight application deadlines, according to Shafiqullah.

Lawyers can ask the government to waive the fees for some applicants such as human-trafficking survivors or children whose parents abused or abandoned them, Shafiqullah said. But the Trump administration has denied many requests that would have been granted in the past, he said.

The government has given "a lot of pushback on waiving fees for people who have suffered tremendously and are seeking humanitarian forms of relief," Shafiqullah said.

Legal Aid could cover fees for as many as 35 people if it hits its $25,000 goal, the group says on its GoFundMe page. But Shafiqullah said the number could vary because of the wide range of fees.

Cases in which "time is of the essence" — including those in which someone could be deported — will get top priority when Legal Aid is deciding how to spend the money, Shafiqullah said.

The organization says it also raised about $25,000 in the fall of 2017 to help more than 50 immigrants renew their protected status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program meant to help people brought to the U.S. as children who are in the country illegally.

The Trump administration gave people 30 days to apply for renewals after it first tried to rescind the program, but some families needed help with the $495 fee, Shafiqullah said. Many Legal Aid clients face similar struggles, he said.

"They can’t afford an attorney, they certainly can’t afford these exorbitant filing fees," Shafiqullah said.