ROOKE: DHS Lays Down New Rule That Could Upend Immigration Trick

The Trump administration proposed a rule change on Monday that would allow U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to fully recover costs associated with immigrant applicants without using taxpayer subsidies.

The move focuses on adjusting fees for immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship using Form N-400, the naturalization application, and Form N-336, which requests a hearing in naturalization proceedings. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants to significantly increase the fees for these applications and eliminate the previous policy of offering fee waivers and reduced-fee options for applicants. The only exception to the rule will be for qualifying U.S. military service members, who will continue to receive fee exemptions.

DHS says that increasing the fees and eliminating the fee waivers and reduced-fee options will allow USCIS to recover the full cost needed to process immigrant applications while improving “the
integrity of the U.S. naturalization system.” (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

“This proposed rule would set the fees for Form N-400 and Form N-336 to recover the cost of adjudicating and processing both forms, including performing screening and vetting checks, which USCIS is continuously enhancing, allowing USCIS to improve the integrity of the U.S. naturalization system and ensure full compliance with current naturalization laws and the President’s Executive Orders,” DHS argued.

Proposed Fee Increases:

• N-336 paper: The current fee of $830 would increase to $1,475, representing a 78 percent rise.
• N-336 online: The current fee of $780 would increase to $1,425, representing an 83 percent rise.
• N-400 paper: The current fee of $760 would increase to $1,330, representing a 75 percent rise.
• N-400 online: The current fee of $710 would increase to $1,280, representing an 80 percent rise.

And while eliminating the taxpayer burden on Americans for immigrants applying for citizenship is noble in itself. The rule will have another effect that will benefit Americans far more. Increasing application fees will effectively price out immigrants who cannot afford the new cost.

Data consistently show immigrant-headed households (especially non-citizens) have higher rates of welfare program use than U.S.-born households. According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analysis from 2024, 53 percent of immigrant-headed households use at least one major welfare program compared to just 37 percent for U.S.-born households.

This rate increases to 59 percent for non-citizens, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders. TPS holders from Central America have the highest rates of welfare use (about 75 percent). And about 65 percent of TPS Haitians living in the U.S. are on some form of welfare.

We estimate that 61% of illegal immigrant households use one or more welfare programs, a large and statistically significant higher rate than the U.S.-born households. https://t.co/IbObxGbbDX pic.twitter.com/CXdmbTauBp

— Center for Immigration Studies (@CIS_org) March 24, 2026

“The findings show that households headed by immigrants, also called the “foreign-born”, are significantly more likely to receive benefits than households headed by the U.S.-born. The ability of low-income immigrants, including illegal immigrants, to receive benefits on behalf of U.S.-born citizen children is a key reason restrictions on welfare use for new legal immigrants, and illegal immigrants, are relatively ineffective,” CIS stated. (ROOKE: Trump Moved To Cut Head Off Snake Of Illegal Immigration)

“If we want immigrants to use less welfare in the future, then reducing illegal immigration and changing the selection criteria for legal immigrants to emphasize skills should be considered,” CIS continued.

The hope here is that the Trump administration understands that the U.S. is struggling under the weight of mass immigration and the extenuating costs associated with their arrivals. If the fees in any way become a barrier to receiving immigrants who will instantly become a drain on an already wavering system, this rule change will pay for itself.

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