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By Sophie Clark
Live News Reporter
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The Trump administration is set to make millions off a new asylum seeker stipulation in the budget reconciliation bill.
If the budget passes the House in its current state, it will result in the federal government charging $100 per person applying for asylum in the United States.
A total of 892,904 asylum applications were recorded in the U.S. in 2024.
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Newsweek has contacted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) via email for comment.
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Why It Matters
USCIS describes asylum seekers as people who have come to the United States seeking protection because they have suffered persecution or fear that they will suffer persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.
What To Know
The House's first draft of the bill, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, placed a $1,000 fee on asylum applications, which were previously free. The Senate's draft brought the fee down to $100, but the bill is now heading back to the House, which may change that detail again.
The budget also adds a fee to several other immigration applications, including $100 per year on a pending asylum application, which used to be free, $550 for an initial work permit fee for asylum seekers and $250 for special immigrant juvenile status, both of which used to be free, and $500 for a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) application, up from $50.
TPS is for people facing serious threats to their personal safety back home. The Trump administration has removed the 2023 designation of TPS for Venezuelan migrants and is trying to remove TPS for Haitian migrants, who face gang violence and political turmoil back home.
The White House may attempt to remove TPS from other groups as well, meaning people could pay $500 only for their claim to become invalid.
Paying to apply for asylum may also not guarantee immigrants protection, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have reportedly been detaining asylum seekers after their court hearings. This means they could end up paying the $100 only to be deported after a hearing over that application.
It is unclear in the bill who would directly benefit from this money. The bill provides $170 billion in funding for immigration-related spending, including $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement and $45 billion for detention centers.
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What People Are Saying
Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council, said in a press release: "At a time when polls show more Americans rejecting mass detention and deportation, this bill ignores what Americans want and doubles down on punitive policies that do nothing to address the real problems in our immigration system including court backlogs, a lack of legal pathways to citizenship, and a broken U.S. asylum system."
Vice President JD Vance posted on X, formerly Twitter, after casting the tie-breaking vote for the Senate's budget bill: "Massive tax cuts, especially no tax on tips and overtime. And most importantly, big money for border security. This is a big win for the American people."
What Happens Next
The budget is now being debated again in the House of Representatives.
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