The American Dream: the ideal that the United States is, without fault, the land of opportunity. This doctrine promotes the notion that any individual who is willing to persist through hard work, toil, and determination will inevitably achieve social progress. Throughout centuries, whether rich or poor, people viewed the American Dream as the only way of achieving socioeconomic mobility, and have thus made numerous sacrifices in a nation that prides itself on being the “land of the free.” We are a nation that immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees flee to with the hope of reaching the epitome of what it means to be American. As of January this year, the number of immigrants and asylum seekers residing in the U.S. totaled around 53.3 million, the highest number on account. Despite the lack of legal protections made available to these populations, their work never falls short. Immigrant involvement in the informal economy, which consists of economic activity that is unregulated and unprotected by states (including street jobs and freelance projects), has allowed these individuals to contribute to the formal economy and ultimately achieve the American Dream. Over just a fifteen year period, immigrants and asylum seekers contributed $123.8 billion in net fiscal funds, generating revenue larger than the amount they consume in federal expenditures. However, the influx of these populations has reinforced tension between them and the federal government, stirring controversy over their “eligibility” to live within the U.S. in the context of national safety to “protect” American culture and naturally born citizens from being limited in opportunities.
In July of this year, President Trump issued a new fee for asylum seekers in his Republican tax bill, demanding “$100 [from] aliens” in addition to an annual fee of another $100 for those whose asylum application is still pending. Several immigration lawyers and clients claim that the instructions for the fee submission are vague. This lack of clarity raises fear within minority communities and reduces the population of America’s hardest workers, the ones who serve as the very economic backbone of our nation.
The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP), an organization dedicated to aiding asylum seekers throughout the U.S., sued the Trump Administration this past month for the new application’s unfairness and procedural confusion. Asylum seekers undergoing the process have also received no confirmation as to whether their money was received from both the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services or the Executive Office for Immigration Review. The vagueness of the federal government’s demands is terrifying; individuals are now constantly “worried [they] won’t have the cash on hand to pay” if the government were to demand their payments at random. The cost of the fee is extraneous in itself and non-waivable, placing a burden on their lifestyle. On October 3rd, the EOIR had already confirmingly rejected a client’s application due to non-payment and has been ordered for deportation — the primary fear these asylum seekers are instilled with. By failing to properly disclose the process to pay the fee, the federal government strips these immigrants of their autonomy. Additionally, these asylum seekers are facing more economic restrictions on obtaining protection from the federal government. Though one never existed before, President Trump ordered an “initial $550 fee for asylum work permit applications,” making it increasingly difficult for these populations to apply for jobs in the informal and formal economy and limiting them entirely to basic mobility.
This trend to exclude immigrants from legal protection isn’t new. Efforts to mitigate foreign populations in the US are a consistent trend in American history. Though repealed in 1943, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the United States’ first piece of legislation placing restrictions on immigration, prohibiting new Chinese laborers and those already living in the U.S. from obtaining naturalized citizenship and new immigrants. With an influx of foreigners from China entering the nation shortly after the California Gold Rush, full of ambitions of profit and achieving the American Dream, U.S. citizens feared foreigners were taking advantage of job opportunities and “robbing” them of their chances of obtaining economic mobility. However, the act produced the opposite result. By reducing the Chinese labor supply by 64 percent in the U.S., the white male labor force experienced a 28 percent reduction, in addition to the loss of lifetime earnings and economic slowdown, due to the lack of support within these foreign-controlled industries (such as the transcontinental system) that supported the general economy the most. Ultimately, limitations placed on economic opportunities for foreigners restrict the amount of productivity in the general economy in addition to raising product prices and business costs, making it difficult for individuals to utilize goods and services.
Not only are these federal actions impermissible, but financially stripping immigrants and asylum seekers of the ability to visualize opportunity contributes to the challenging process that the existing minority population has had to face decades before. People come to America chasing the American Dream and seeking better lives for their families, and instead face the government’s ignorance, racism, hatred in the workforce, and xenophobia among their neighbors despite them sharing similar dreams and aspirations of success. The only difference between natives and immigrants is their citizenship status; ultimately, society’s inhumane determining factor for who “deserves” more mobility than others. This determination should never exist. A nation that prides itself on being the “land of the free” in song, scripture, and declaration should embrace its core values authentically, and grant individuals all around the opportunity deserved.
As of 2024, asylum grant rates within the United States have declined by more than a third. This trend is not likely to change under the Administration’s recent actions. The Administration’s continuous push to alter these policies by imposing a financial constraint on the nation’s hardest workers is a deliberate violation of rights that disproportionately affects the minority population.
Moreover, debates between business owners and policymakers on the existence of the informal economy trace back to the influx of immigrant and asylum seeker populations. Many critics argue for the abolition of the informal economy and unregulated businesses because it perpetuates the cycle of poverty that these individuals face, in addition to supposedly producing lower productivity in larger scale businesses for the formal economy. However, the existence of the informal economy has actually allowed for the mitigation and support of the labor force, providing jobs that produce livable wages during times of economic downturn. It also grants minority groups— asylum seekers, immigrants, undocumented, or those of the lower class, with economic mobility since these jobs hardly demand any training. Though its financial impact is little in comparison to larger corporations, asylum seekers and immigrants still meaningfully contribute to the economy.
In turn, President Trump’s decisions to limit the immigrant community’s ability to sustain stable lifestyles are immoral and impact the rest of the general population. The number of America’s hardest workers is decreasing at an alarming rate. The lack of transparency from the federal government regarding these disproportionately affected communities has instilled continuous fear within marginalized communities, and among the wealthy and middle-class, who will face the repercussions of the economic impact. Without these passionate individuals who work to challenge the legitimacy of the American Dream, the world we live in today may not exist. Nothing but citizenship makes these asylum seekers any different from a naturalized citizen in the U.S. It is time we, as a nation, stay true to what we pride ourselves on: “life, liberty, and justice for all.”
Featured Image Source: HIAS
