On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law a reconciliation bill, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which contains sweeping immigration provisions that represent a historic rollback of protections and access. The bill’s immigration section is one of the most aggressive in decades––expanding enforcement, surveillance, and detention while imposing many mandatory and cost-prohibitive fees on immigration applications.
H.R.1 allocates a record high of $140 billion for enforcement including border wall construction, border patrol infrastructure, ICE operations, and expanded detention centers which more than quadruple current ICE capacity. As a result, the bill alters immigration policy through the spending of significant federal tax dollars, and because these funds are provided through reconciliation and not the regular appropriations process, it prevents meaningful oversight from members of Congress.
Filing fees are also proposed to skyrocket, with several new mandatory fees, many which are non-waivable, driving costs for immigration processes significantly. This includes a myriad of new costs for visas, asylum, TPS, parole, employment authorization, apppeals, and penalty fees like $5,000 for missed hearings. The bill triggered immediate implementation of most of these fee provisions.
Agencies, like DHS, DOJ, and USCIS, are working to update forms and fee structures, though some delays are expected. Lawsuits and state-level challenges are also underway.
We will continue to share updates as we learn about them.
Key Updates
On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law a reconciliation bill, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which contains sweeping immigration provisions that represent a historic rollback of protections and access. H.R.1’s immigration section is one of the most aggressive in decades––expanding enforcement, surveillance, and detention while imposing many mandatory and cost-prohibitive fees on immigration benefit applications. Agencies, like DHS, DOJ, and USCIS, are working to update forms and fee structures, though some delays are expected.
