What DACA Costs Immigrants

And the campus activists and their mentors won’t tell you. “The cost of adjudicating DACA applications has been subsidized by other immigration benefits applicants to the tune of $316.5 million over the last three years, according to information released by [U.S. Customs and Immigration Service] USCIS on Friday,” Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) writes. “This subsidy was needed because the Obama administration did not impose an application fee for DACA status.”

“Most immigration benefits applicants pay for the application for the status they are seeking, with additional fees for a work permit and fingerprint collection; DACA applicants only had to pay for the work permits and fingerprints, leaving legal immigrants and visa applicants to pick up the tab for the cost of adjudicating their eligibility for DACA.”

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