Protect Asylum Seekers
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Happening now

Urgent: Protect asylum seekers

The government is using a cruel new tactic to deport asylum seekers over a single missed notice. The clock is running out, but we still have time to act.

Check if you owe a fee

If you have an asylum case pending, you may need to pay a new $102 fee to the government. Don't wait for a notice to arrive. Missing it can mean your case gets rejected. Checking only takes a few minutes.

You'll need your application Receipt Number and your A Number from your USCIS paperwork.

Check if you owe a fee to USCIS

Get step-by-step help

ASAP has a clear guide on how the fee works, how to find your numbers, and how to pay. It's the best place to start if you're not sure your case is with USCIS.

Read ASAP's guide

The Trump administration is charging families seeking asylum a fee for the first time in history, and manipulating bureaucracy to rip them from the safety they've fought for. Here's how it works:

  1. They send a letter.

    The government sends asylum seekers a single letter in English about the fee, to whatever address they last had on file. It starts a clock that gives people just 30 days to pay before their case is automatically rejected.

  2. The deadline passes.

    Plenty of people never get the letter in time, can't pay, or don't understand what they are being asked to do. When the deadline hits, the government throws out the case and cancels the person's work permit. It doesn't matter what danger they fled, or how many years they've been waiting for someone to hear their case. There is no waiver and no appeal.

  3. Deportation.

    Unless the family has another legal status to fall back on, the government moves to deport them.

This only works because people don't find out in time.

Telling one person could keep their family from being deported.

Spread the word to check for fees

Make sure asylum seekers in your community know about the new fees before a deadline catches them off guard. Help each other if someone needs support to pay. Download a graphic to share, or send the message below.

Oppose these cruel policies out loud in whatever ways you can.

Protest. Demonstrate. Write to your elected representatives. Make noise. File lawsuits. Tell journalists. Find ways to oppose this cruel treatment for yourselves, your loved ones, friends, and neighbors.

More about what's happening

Asylum seekers and families living in the US legally are having their applications purged through mass rejection for unjust reasons while they wait for a decision on their case.

For the first time in history, the United States is charging fees to seek asylum, including a yearly fee to continue to be considered when the government keeps them waiting on a decision. This fee has a confusing structure, unreasonably short deadlines to pay, and complicated, shifting rules that are hard to follow. These rules are designed to give the government cover to suddenly deport vulnerable people into danger.

The yearly fee applies to affirmative asylum seekers whose cases have been in the USCIS system for more than a year: These are people who have fled some of the most violent, traumatizing persecution on earth, who have been rebuilding their lives in the United States. They are here legally. Many of them have been living here for years with their families. Rejections resulting from these fees will throw many lives into chaos, with harsh, irreversible, life-altering punishment for things like missing a letter in the mail, not having a bank account, not having the funds to pay, or not understanding instructions given only in English.

The new rules keep asylum seekers on their toes, living in terror of having their entire lives disrupted if they miss something they don't understand. For many, these cruel bureaucratic schemes will result in the sudden loss of their legal status, their permit to work, and the one thing the government has promised them for years: a chance at someday having a place in the world where they are allowed to safely live for good.