GOP Senators Blast DHS for Hiking Fees on Farmers in Order to Fund Asylum Cases; Republicans Slam DHS Fee Hikes on Farmers to Finance Asylum System

GOP senators blast DHS for hiking fees on farmers in order to fund asylum cases:

Sen. Marsha Blackburn led a group of Republican senators Tuesday in blasting the Biden administration for trying to raise fees that businesses pay to bring in immigrant workers, saying the president wants farmers to pay the price for his border chaos.

The lawmakers said the basic fee increases — which will more than double in some cases — will hurt businesses struggling to find workers in the current economy.

They said even worse is an additional $600-per-visa surcharge that would be used to cover the costs of the asylum system, which has spiraled out of control in recent years as illegal immigrants show up at the southern border and make iffy claims of protection.

“Instead of penalizing employers for this administration’s manufactured border crisis, DHS should focus its efforts on instituting commonsense policies to stem the influx of migrants overwhelming our immigration system,” Ms. Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, and seven colleagues wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

They called on Mr. Mayorkas to cancel the fee increases.

The secretary detailed the increases in a regulatory filing in January, saying he hoped to raise the annual income of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that handles legal immigration, from $4.5 billion a year to $6.4 billion. —>READ MORE HERE

Republicans slam DHS fee hikes on farmers to finance asylum system:

A group of Republican lawmakers on Tuesday called out the Department of Homeland Security for increasing the fees businesses must pay to bring in migrant workers, which they say makes Americans pay for on ongoing migration surge at the southern border.

The DHS-mandated fee hikes double the existing costs in some instances and further impose a $600-per-visa surcharge, the Washington Times reported. That fee in particular, will reportedly be used to help finance the nation’s strained asylum system, which has struggled to handle the influx of asylum seekers arriving at the border.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in January indicated that the fees were an effort to boost funding to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the outlet noted.

Republican lawmakers, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., wrote to Mayorkas, demanding he cancel the fee increases.

“Instead of penalizing employers for this administration’s manufactured border crisis, DHS should focus its efforts on instituting commonsense policies to stem the influx of migrants overwhelming our immigration system,” they wrote, per the Times. “We are deeply disappointed that the Biden —>READ MORE HERE

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