'Ends asylum for the poor': Immigration attorney sounds alarm on House GOP plan

President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" merging his tax cut plan with energy deregulation and border security has yet to materialize, but Republicans in the House are out with part of the framework that would seek to raise revenue for the bill by tightening restrictions on asylum. The issue has broad bipartisan agreement that reform is necessary, as although asylum is recognized as a universal human right, the sheer volume of asylum seekers, many of whom are not eligible, has exploded at the U.S. border in recent years.

However, wrote American Immigration Council attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick in a lengthy thread on X, what their proposal essentially does is "mostly end asylum for the poor" — by slapping a constellation of new fees on the process to apply, seek a hearing, and get legal representation that desperate people fleeing from economic or political hardship are unlikely to be able to afford.

To start with, the bill "imposes a $1,000 unwaivable fee to apply for asylum, plus $550 every 6 months for work permits and $100 for every year the case drags on," wrote Reichlin-Melnick, who has been relentlessly covering the Trump administration's efforts to purge immigrants.

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"The reconciliation package would also charge anyone sponsoring an unaccompanied child out of an [Office of Refugee Resettlement] shelter $8,500(!), of which $5,000 would be reimbursable if the child was not ordered deported 'in absentia' for missing court," Reichlin-Melnick continued, noting that almost no one willing to sponsor a migrant child would do so at that price.

And "defending yourself in immigration court would become FAR more expensive. $100 fee for ANY continuance (except in 'exceptional circumstances'), including continues to get a lawyer; $1,050 fee for ANY waiver application; $900 fee for all appeals except bond (currently $110)."

The proposal also charges a $5,000 "fee" for being apprehended crossing the border outside a port of entry, or for being deported, which, Reichlin-Melnick noted, "are clearly civil monetary penalties and make no sense when described as a 'fee.'"

And additional fees he flagged are, "$500 for any Special Immigrant Juvenile Status application; $250 visa bond for ALL nonimmigrant visa applicants; $550 for any parole work permit; $1,500 fee for applying to adjust status to get a green card in front of an immigration judge."

In the meantime, he noted, the bill would vastly pump up Immigration and Customs Enforcement, appropriating $45 billion to the agency through 2029, "which would be a 364% annual increase to the current $3.4 billion detention budget!"

And to top it all off, Reichlin-Melnick said, slipped into the end of the bill is a provision that would effectively neuter any judge's ability to hold Trump officials in contempt of court if they ignore rulings against their deportation practices. The provision would declare judges can only enforce contempt penalties if a bond was issued against the party that defied the court order; federal court rules already say judges can't issue bonds if the party being sued is the U.S. government, effectively meaning Trump and his officials couldn't ever be punished for defying court orders.

Last year, under the Biden administration, senators cobbled together a bipartisan bill attempting to reform the asylum system through a combination of new border restrictions and increased funding for immigration courts so cases could be processed more quickly. However, Trump, then a presidential candidate, scuttled this deal by leaning on Republican lawmakers to oppose it.