November 27, 2018

Submitted via www.regulations.gov

Samantha Deshommes, Chief

Regulatory Coordination Division, Office of Policy and Strategy

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Department of Homeland Security

20 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20529-2140

Re: Docket ID USCIS-2010-0008 - Public Comment Opposing Proposed Changes to Fee Waiver Eligibility Criteria, FR Doc. 2018-21101 Filed 9-27-18; 83 FR 49120, 49120-49121

Dear Ms. Deshommes:

I am writing on behalf of Brooklyn Defender Services in opposition to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) proposed changes to fee waiver eligibility criteria, USCIS Docket ID USCIS-2010-0008, OMB Control Number 1615-0116, published in the Federal Register on September 28, 2018.

BDS is a full-service public defender office in Brooklyn, New York, representing nearly 35,000 low-income New Yorkers each year who are arrested, charged with abuse or neglect of their children, or face deportation. BDS also provides a wide range of other services to our clients, including help with housing, education, employment, and representation in affirmative immigration applications. Since 2009, BDS has counseled, advised or represented more than 10,000 immigrant clients, including many under the age of 18. We are a Board of Immigration Appeals-recognized legal service provider. About a quarter of BDS’s criminal defense clients are foreign-born, roughly half of whom are not naturalized citizens and, therefore, at risk of deportation or losing the opportunity to obtain lawful immigration status as a result of their criminal or family defense case. Our criminal-immigration specialists provide support and expertise on thousands of such cases. In addition, BDS is one of three New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (“NYIFUP”) providers and has defended more than 1,000 people in detained deportation proceedings since the inception of the project three years ago. Furthermore, BDS has a dedicated Immigrant Youth and Communities Team that represents Brooklyn immigrants applying for lawful immigration status and in non-detained removal proceedings.

This includes representing young clients in their pursuit of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (“SIJS”) or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

The proposed changes to the fee waiver eligibility criteria and accepted forms of evidence create an additional burden for immigrant communities and vulnerable individuals and would cause a significant additional burden on communities, federal agencies, and service providers. Relying on a state’s determination of eligibility for benefits is a reliable and efficient way for USCIS to determine whether an applicant can meet the fee waiver standard without imposing additional burdens on applicants and without increasing the workload on USCIS adjudicating officers.

Conversely, declining to rely on these well-established systems will create further backlog with USCIS applications due to the additional level of review, to little or no added benefit given states’ prior eligibility determinations. If USCIS were to make any changes to the fee waiver form, we urge the agency to expand the types of documentary evidence accepted in order to establish eligibility for a fee waiver in order to ensure the fair and efficient adjudication of these applications.

The proposed changes will:

• Place a significant burden on individuals applying for immigration benefits and will negatively impact our communities’
• Negatively impact the ability of individuals, especially those who are vulnerable, to apply for immigration benefits for which they are eligible;
• Place a time and resource burden on individuals applying for fee waivers;
• Place a time and resource burden on legal service providers and reduce access to legal services, especially in under-resourced locations; and
• Lead USCIS adjudicators to have to review even more voluminous documentation, causing even further delay in processing times, to no meaningful benefit to USCIS.

Brooklyn Defender Services prioritizes providing representation to under-served and particularly vulnerable immigrant populations including individuals who are trafficking victims, veterans, and juveniles, as well as individuals who have mental or physical health issues. As a public defender agency, all of our clients are low-income or poor. When we represent our clients in an application to USCIS we often request to waive the fees associated with their applications.

These fees can total thousands of dollars depending on the type of application and paying the fees is simply impossible for many of our clients who are single parents, heads of households, domestic violence and abuse survivors, or homeless. If the proposed rule to eliminate the receipt of means-tested benefits is enacted, this will pose a hardship for our clients as demonstrating household income is significantly more onerous and often impossible to prove for undocumented clients who haven’t filed taxes. The proposed rule is unduly burdensome for our clients and the legal services providers, such as BDS, who serve them.

The proposed changes to the fee waiver eligibility criteria, as well as the greater evidentiary burden on applicants and their families, will create perhaps insurmountable barriers for those seeking to secure their immigration status, be together in their communities, and naturalize so that they can participate fully in American life and be civically engaged. We urge USCIS, rather than implement the proposed rule change, to work instead to expand the types of documentary evidence accepted in order to establish eligibility for a fee waiver in order to ensure the fair and efficient adjudication of immigration benefits and naturalization. This will bring us closer to an inclusive process that honors our country’s commitment to welcoming immigrants.

Sincerely yours,

Lisa Schreibersdorf

Executive Director

Brooklyn Defender Services