More Photos (4):

Related articles:

Arizona response to Senate immigration-law vote: jeers to cheersErnesto Portillo Jr.: Immigration answers are all in the eyes of the beholders

Other articles by Moises D. Mendoza:

Update: Four dead, one survives Marine chopper crash near Yuma Tapes from exorcism: screaming, confusion Visitors trashing national forests Mourners remember pilot, photog killed in helicopter collision Fire crews begin heading home as observatory considered safeFirefighters say blaze no longer major threat to N. Arizona townLarge Arizona wildfires prompt evacuationsAccused killers of Queen Creek girl plead not guilty 2 boys, 16, held in slaying, burning of Queen Creek girl Lawyer wants sex charges against Baseline Killer suspect dropped

Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION General
A1 Communications
Cable Techs Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator

PHOENIX — A new immigration fee schedule went into effect nationally Monday, boosting costs for applicants seeking permanent residency, naturalization or other services, in some cases by more than 100 percent.

Under the plan, which has been hotly contested by immigration-rights advocates, fees go up by an average of 70 percent, the government said. The cost to apply for naturalized citizenship increased from $400 to $675. The application fee for a residency permit hops from around $300 to more than $1,000.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that deals with services to immigrants, said the fee increases are necessary to streamline their services and modernize infrastructure. The agency relies mostly on application fees for its operations and has been hampered by an inability to keep up with demand, officials said.

Officials project that the fee increases will nearly double the agency's revenue, bringing in an additional $1 billion in the next fiscal year.

By fiscal year 2009 the agency hopes to reduce application processing times by about 20 percent.

"We are required to recover our costs and we have not been recovering our costs," said spokeswoman Marie Sebrechts, who added that many immigrants will be able to apply for special fee waivers.

But some immigrant-rights advocates who have been fighting the fee increases since the government announced them earlier this year remain unconvinced.

"It raises the question of whether citizenship is being made inaccessible to people," said Kat Rodriguez, a coordinator with the Coalition de Derechos Humanos in Tucson. "Doing anything to make it harder for people to get citizenship is bad. These increases are not going to be any help to people who can't afford them."

Immigrants have raced to beat the increases, flooding the agency with applications. About 135,000 people filed naturalization applications in June compared with 71,288 in June 2006, according to government statistics. Sebrechts, however, said some of increases were the result of better services by the government, the high visibility of immigration issues and natural fluctuations.