President Donald Trump honors the Super Bowl LIX champion Philadelphia Eagles at The White House in Washington D.C., on April 28, 2025.
Washington D.C. – A provision buried in the Trump administration’s sweeping budget bill could force asylum seekers to pay to apply for protection in the United States — a practice that, until now, was free and considered a basic right under international law.
Under the bill, which has cleared the Senate and is now being debated in the House, asylum applicants would be required to pay a $100 fee per application. While a Senate revision lowered the original $1,000 proposal, the price tag remains significant. Nearly 893,000 people applied for asylum in the United States in 2024, meaning the federal government could generate tens of millions of dollars from migrants fleeing persecution — even if they’re ultimately denied legal status.
The fee is just one part of a broader shift in immigration policy embedded in the proposed legislation, formally titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The budget includes a $170 billion immigration spending package that dramatically increases funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). ICE alone would receive more than $100 billion over the next four years — a tenfold increase from its current annual budget of $10 billion.
The changes don’t stop with asylum applications. The budget would also impose or raise fees on a range of humanitarian programs: $550 for work permits for asylum seekers, $500 for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) applications (up from $50), and $250 for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. It also creates a new $100 annual charge for pending asylum applications. These programs were previously free or subsidized by the government.
TPS, meant for migrants fleeing violence or natural disasters, is itself being rolled back. The administration has already revoked protections for Venezuelans and is attempting to strip them from Haitians, despite ongoing political instability and violence in both countries. Critics warn that migrants could pay hundreds of dollars for protection, only to see the government revoke their eligibility midway through the process.
It remains unclear how these funds would be used, or who directly benefits. The bill includes $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement, $45 billion for detention centers, and funding to hire 10,000 new ICE agents by 2029. The administration also wants to double detention bed space from 50,000 to 100,000.
White House officials have yet to respond to questions about the fee structure, and both DHS and USCIS have declined to comment. Civil rights advocates, however, say the proposals mark a fundamental change in how the United States approaches asylum — turning it from a right into a transaction.
“At a time when polls show more Americans rejecting mass detention and deportation,” said Nayna Gupta of the American Immigration Council, “this bill ignores what Americans want and doubles down on punitive policies that do nothing to address the real problems in our immigration system.”
On Tuesday, while Senate Republicans negotiated the bill’s details, former President Trump traveled to Florida to tour a new migrant detention center deep in the Everglades — dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by locals — where migrants will be held while awaiting deportation.
For many asylum seekers, what was once a narrow legal path to safety is now being priced into oblivion.
