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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 159 / Friday, August 20, 2021 / Proposed Rules
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i. Impacts to the Credible Fear Asylum Population Under the change in procedures of this proposed rule, asylum applicants who have established a credible fear of persecution or torture would not be required to file Form I589 with USCIS.
Individuals in this population could accrue cost-savings relevant to this change. There is no filing fee for Form I589, and the time burden is currently estimated at 12.0 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, and completing and submitting the form.69 With regard to cost-savings, DHS believes the minimum wage is appropriate to rely on as a lower bound, as the applicants would be new to the U.S. labor market.
The Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour; however, in this proposed rule, we rely on the effective minimum wage of $11.80. As The New York Times reported, twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have state-level minimum hourly wages higher than the federal minimum wage, as do many city and county governments. This New York Times report estimates that the effective minimum wage in the United States was $11.80 an hour in 2019. 70
Therefore, USCIS uses the effective minimum hourly wage rate of $11.80 to estimate a lower bound. USCIS uses a national average wage rate across occupations of $27.07 71 to take into consideration the variance in average wages across States as an upper bound.
DHS accounts for worker benefits by calculating a benefits-to-wage multiplier using the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS report detailing the average employer costs for employee compensation for all civilian workers in major occupational groups and industries. DHS relies on a benefits-towage multiplier of 1.45 and, therefore, is able to estimate the full opportunity cost per applicant, including employee wages and salaries and the full cost of 69 See Instructions for Form I589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, OMB
No.16150067 expires July 31, 2022, https
www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/
i-589instr.pdf last visited May 12, 2021.
70 Ernie Tedeschi, Americans Are Seeing Highest Minimum Wage in History Without Federal Help, The New York Times Apr. 24, 2019, https
www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/upshot/whyamerica-may-already-have-its-highest-minimumwage.html. We note that with the wage level dated to 2019, we do not make an inflationary adjustment because the Federal minimum wage has not changed since then.
71 For the average wage for all occupations, the Departments rely on statistics of the U.S.
Department of Labor. See U.S. Dept of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS, May 2020
National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, https www.bls.gov/oes/2020/may/oes_
nat.htm00-0000 last visited May 13, 2021.

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benefits such as paid leave, insurance, retirement, and other benefits.72 The total rate of compensation for the effective minimum hourly wage is $17.11 $11.80 benefits burden of 1.45, which is 62.8 percent higher than the Federal minimum wage.73 The total rate of compensation for the average wage is $39.25 $27.07 benefits burden of 1.45.
For applicants who have established a credible fear, the opportunity cost of 12
hours to file Form I589 at the lower and upper bound wage rates is $205.32
12 hours $17.11 and $471.00 12
hours $39.25, respectively, with a midrange average of $338.16. In addition, form instructions require a passport-style photograph for each family member associated with the Form I589 filing. The Departments obtain an estimate of the number of additional family members applicable via data on biometrics collections for the Form I589. Biometrics information is collected on every individual associated with a Form I589 filing, and the tracking of collections is captured in the USCIS Customer Profile Management System CPMS
database. A query of this system reveals that for the five-year period of FY 2016
through FY 2020, an average of 296,072
biometrics collections accrued for the Form I589 annually. Dividing this figure by the same five-year period average of 110,937 initial filings Table 3 yields a multiplier of 2.67
rounded.74 Under the supposition that each photo incurs costs to applicants of $10,75 there could be $26.70 in additional cost-savings at either wage 72 The benefits-to-wage multiplier is calculated as follows: Total Employee Compensation per hour/
Wages and Salaries per hour $38.60 Total Employee Compensation per hour/$26.53 Wages and Salaries per hour = 1.454957 = 1.45 rounded.
See U.S. Department of Labor, BLS, Economic News Release, Employer Cost for Employee Compensation December 2020, Table 1. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation by Ownership Dec. 2020, https www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ecec_
03182021.pdf. last visited Mar. 31, 2021.
73 The Federal minimum wage is $7.25 hourly, which burdened at 1.45 yields $10.51. It follows that: $17.11 wage$10.51 wage/$10.51 wage =
0.628, which rounded and multiplied by 100 = 62.8
percent.
74 Calculation: Average I589 biometrics collections 296,072/110,937 average initial I589
filings = 2.67 rounded. Data were obtained from the USCIS Immigration Records and Identity Services IRIS Directorate, via the CPMS
database data obtained May 7, 2021.
75 The U.S. Department of State estimates an average cost of $10 per passport photo in their supporting statement for their Paperwork Reduction Act PRA submission for the Application for a U.S.
Passport, OMB 14050004 DS11 Feb. 8, 2011, http www.reginfo.gov/public/do/
PRAViewDocument?ref_nbr=201102-1405-001 see question 13 of the Supporting Statement.

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bound.76 The resulting cost savings per applicant from no longer having to file Form I589 could range from $232.02 to $497.70, with a midrange of $364.86.77
Though these applicants would no longer be required to file Form I589, DHS recognizes that applicants would likely expend some time and effort to prepare for their asylum interviews and provide documentation for their asylum claim under this rule as well. DHS does not know exactly how long, on average, an individual may spend preparing for their credible fear interviews under the proposed rule, and how that amount of time and effort would compare to the time individuals currently spend preparing for the credible fear interview.
If the increased time were substantial i.e., above and beyond that currently earmarked for the asylum application processlower cost-savings could result.
Additionally, asylum applicants with a positive credible fear determination would still submit biometrics to USCIS.
Hence, for applicants that file a Form I
589, photos would be collected via this biometrics process for the credible fear determination as well as for the Form I
589 application. Under this proposed rule, there would be a change in process such that applicants would submit biometrics at an asylum office as opposed to an USCIS Application Support Center ASC. As a result, there could be timeand travelassociated impacts driven by this change, but because the requirements remain largely the same, we do not attempt to quantify them. Specifically, the average distance and travel time is likely to differ between asylum offices and ASCs, thereby possibly impacting the direct travel mileage cost as well as the travel-time related opportunity costs. However, the Departments assume these differences would be negligible, and therefore we do not quantify them.
Under the proposed rule, asylum applicants who established a credible fear would be able to file for work authorization via the Form I765, Application for Employment Authorization EAD, while their asylum application is being adjudicated.
We cannot say, however, whether the volume of Form I765 EADs filed would increase or decrease in upcoming years due to this proposed rule. Currently, asylum applicants can file for an EAD
under the asylum c8 category while 76 Calculation: $10 per photo cost 2.67 photos per I589 application = $26.70.
77 Calculation: $205.32 + $26.70 = $232.02;
$338.16 + $26.70 = $364.86; $471.00 + $26.70 =
$497.70.

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