DHS Just Ended the Trick That Let Welfare Recipients Make Taxpayers Fund Their Own Citizenship

Markwayne Mullin went on CNN Sunday and accidentally set off a MAGA revolt.

By Monday, DHS had already dropped the rule that makes the revolt irrelevant.

What that rule does to immigrants on welfare is something Jake Tapper did not ask about.

The Fee Waiver Scam Nobody Was Talking About

The current system lets immigrants on means-tested welfare programs apply for citizenship at taxpayer expense.

File Form N-400 – the naturalization application – and if you're receiving government benefits or your household income is below 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, the $760 filing fee gets waived.

Waived means American taxpayers cover it.

DHS's proposed rule changes that entirely.

Under the new proposal, the N-400 fee increases to $1,330 for paper filers and $1,280 online – an 80 percent jump.

More importantly, the fee waivers disappear completely.

DHS made the reasoning explicit in the Federal Register filing: "Free filing or inexpensive fees may encourage aliens who know or suspect that they are ineligible… to apply anyway."

The only exemption that survives is for active and former military service members – required by statute and untouched by the rule.

The Numbers Behind the Rule

The Center for Immigration Studies analyzed 2024 federal data and found that 52.7 percent of immigrant-headed households use at least one major welfare program – compared to just 37.3 percent for American-born households.

Strip out naturalized citizens and look only at non-citizen households, and that welfare rate climbs to 58.6 percent – more than 21 percentage points above native-born Americans.

TPS holders are worse.

Central American TPS households use welfare at roughly 75 percent rates.

Haitian TPS households come in around 65 percent.

The fee waiver system was letting those same households hand the naturalization bill to American taxpayers.

USCIS is funded almost entirely by application fees – about 96 percent of its budget.

Every fee waiver is a gap covered by fee-paying applicants and congressional appropriations – meaning American workers are underwriting citizenship applications for people who are simultaneously drawing from the programs that American workers fund.

What Mullin Said That MAGA Didn't Like

DHS Secretary Mullin appeared on CNN's State of the Union Sunday and walked straight into a firestorm.

Tapper pressed him on the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling allowing TPS termination for 350,000 Haitians and Syrians.

Mullin told Tapper those individuals had options – apply for permanent residence, apply for a visa, or accept roughly $2,100 and a flight home.

MAGA revolt followed immediately.

Mullin spent Sunday evening clarifying on X: "Temporary Protected Status is just that: TEMPORARY."

He added that anyone on welfare, anyone with felony charges, and anyone with pending criminal cases would not be accepted into permanent residency programs.

The fee waiver rule and Mullin's clarification point in the same direction.

If you came here temporarily, collected benefits, and can't afford the processing fee to apply for citizenship without taxpayer help – the Trump administration's answer is no.

The Larger Architecture

This rule doesn't exist in isolation.

It follows the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling clearing DHS to end TPS for Haiti and Syria – with the Court ruling that TPS termination decisions are shielded from most legal challenges.

It follows the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, which added new statutory immigration fees that cannot be waived at all.

And it follows Trump's January 2025 executive orders directing every federal agency to enforce the beneficiary-pays principle on immigration processing.

The pattern is straightforward.

Every pathway that allowed welfare-dependent immigrants to externalize their costs onto American taxpayers is closing – one rule, one ruling, one statute at a time.

A 60-day public comment period opened June 22, 2026, and the rule is not final yet.

But the direction is unmistakable, and Democrats who spent years building a system where welfare recipients could apply for citizenship at taxpayer expense are watching it get dismantled piece by piece.

Sources:

• Mary Rooke, "DHS Lays Down New Rule That Could Upend Immigration Trick," The Daily Caller, June 25, 2026.
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security, "Naturalization Application Fee Adjustments," Federal Register, June 23, 2026.
• Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler, "Welfare Use by Immigrants and the U.S.-Born, 2024," Center for Immigration Studies, February 2026.
• Fox News Staff, "Markwayne Mullin Clashes with Jake Tapper Over Haiti Deportations," Fox News, June 29, 2026.
• Daily Caller News Foundation, "Markwayne Mullin Reminds CNN Host What The 'T' In 'TPS' Means," The Daily Caller, June 28, 2026.