Pause on Federal Student Loan Payments Extended

Money Matters Pause on Federal Student Loan Payments Extended

BY ARI LAZARUS

As you may have heard, the U.S. Department of Education announced another extension of the flexibilities offered to federal student loan borrowers. Understanding these options can help you make more informed decisions about paying your bills and prioritizing your debts. The benefits have been extended through May 1, 2022. You don’t need to hire a company to help you get this student loan payment relief. The program is already in place and there’s nothing you need to do to enroll. Anyone who tells you they can help you sign up for this program for a fee is a scammer. So, just to recap, what does this mean for you if you have a federal student loan? 1. This program gives temporary payment relief to borrowers with qualifying federal student loans. But some federal student loans don’t qualify – for example, older Family Federal Education Loan (FFEL) program loans or Perkins Loans that are owned by the school you attended. Contact your federal loan servicer online or by phone to find out if your loans are eligible.

2. If your federal loans are covered, the U.S. Department of Education has automatically placed your loans into what’s called “administrative forbearance.” That means you can stop making payments on those loans right away, up through May 1, 2022. If your payments automatically come out of your bank account, check if any payments have been processed since March 13, 2020. If they have, you may be able to get a refund as part of administrative forbearance.

3. If you want to keep making payments on your qualifying federal student loan through May 1st, the interest rate is now 0%. So any payments you make during the forbearance period may help you pay off your debt faster. If you’re on an income-based repayment program and/or a forgiveness program, you should check out Federal Student Aid's Coronavirus page to see which option makes sense for you.

4. If your federal student loans are in default, the U.S. Department of Education has stopped making collection calls, and sending letters or billing statements through May 1, 2022. And if your federal loans were in default and your employer continues to garnish your wages, you’ll get a refund. This program only applies to federal student loans. Not sure what kinds of student loans you have? Here are two things you can do to find out: •Get a complete list of your private and federal student loans by pulling your credit report. (In fact, you can get your report for free every week through April 20, 2022.) Read through it and find your student loans, taking note of the companies that are your lenders or loan servicers. Compare it to the full list of federal loan servicers found here.

•Confirm which of your loans are federal. Log into FSA or call the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) at 1-800433-3243.p

Ari Lazarus is a Consumer Education Specialist at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

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New Report Amplifies Concerns About ‘Dedicated Docket’ for Asylum Seekers

BY AARON REICHLIN-MELNICK

When the Biden administration announced a new “dedicated docket” in immigration court for families seeking asylum at the border, many advocates raised concerns that the docket would forgo due process for efficiency’s sake. This was the case for the “rocket dockets” that existed under President Obama, which suffered from lack of access to counsel and frequent bureaucratic errors. A new report from the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reveals that some of those concerns are being borne out. The TRAC report found that 92% of cases completed in the first seven months of the program resulted in an immigrant being issued an order of removal. In nearly all those cases, the immigrant did not have a lawyer. In total, just 16% of people put onto the Dedicated Docket since May have told the court they have a lawyer. Those whose cases have been pending the longest are most likely to have obtained lawyers. 46% of people with cases pending longer than six months secured a lawyer. This is to be expected, as many people take months to obtain a lawyer. Out of the 1,687 Dedicated Docket cases completed since May, just 13 people were granted any form of relief, as many cases have not reached the final hearing stage yet. Concerns about bureaucratic errors were also validated by the data. When asylum seekers are released at the border with a court date, that court date is generated by a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer using the immigration court system’s “Interactive Scheduling System.” But after that date is generated, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) still needs to formally file removal charges against the immigrant for the court case to begin. TRAC found that in 10% of all Dedicated Docket cases, an immigration judge terminated the case because ICE failed to file that paperwork with the court before the hearing was scheduled. In total, over 7,000 cases were terminated for “failure to prosecute.” ICE’s failure to file the right paperwork can leave asylum seekers in limbo, waiting for ICE to file new charges against them to restart the case. In many cases, people will fall through the cracks and may find themselves entirely undocumented through no fault of their own. TRAC’s data also reveals the disproportionate effect of Title 42 at the border. In previous years, most new asylum cases were for individuals from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. But under Title 42, most nationals of those three countries are rapidly expelled back to Mexico, while other nationalities which can’t be expelled to Mexico are more likely to be admitted and allowed to seek asylum. As a result of this discrepancy in border processing, nationals of Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Colombia make up 71% of all Dedicated Docket cases. Nationals of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador make up just 22% of cases. The TRAC report makes clear that concerns about expedited dockets remain. As the Biden administration expands the use of this docket across the country and sends thousands of asylum seekers into the system, it must ensure that all asylum seekers have access to counsel and are not unable to pursue their case due to bureaucratic error.p

Old & New Immigrants: Their Rights State Department Waives Fees for Immigrants Denied Visas Due to the Muslim Ban

BY KATE GOETTEL

The State Department announced a new rule that will waive fees for visa applicants who were denied because of the Muslim and refugee ban. Under the new rule, an immigrant visa applicant who has an approved immigration petition may reapply for a visa without paying the fees if they were refused a visa under the Muslim Ban. The new rule is in furtherance of a presidential proclamation that President Biden issued on his first day in office. That proclamation, titled “Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to the United States,” immediately rescinded the Muslim Ban. The president directed the State Department “to develop a proposal for individuals whose immigrant visa applications were denied.” The State Department was also directed to “consider whether to reopen immigrant visa applications that were denied” and “whether it is necessary to charge an additional fee to process those visa applications.” In the first week of his term, President Trump issued a presidential proclamation banning entry of Muslims and refugees. Trump issued a second version two months later, in March 2017. The first two versions of the ban were blocked by lower courts. The courts found they exceeded the authority granted to the president by Congress and were motivated by Trump’s well-documented prejudice against Muslims. The third iteration of the Muslim Ban imposed indefinite bans on many immigrants and refugees from six Muslim-majority countries (Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen). The ban also blocked all individuals from North Korea and a small subset of Venezuelan government officials. In 2018, the Supreme Court affirmed the legality of the third ban. A majority of the Justices found that that the president has “broad discretion” under the law to suspend entry into the United States of certain classes of individuals when detrimental to the national interest. But Justice Sotomayor shot back in a dissent that “the policy now masquerades behind a façade of national-security concerns.” The new fee exemption applies to any visa denied solely because of the Muslim Ban. Applicants who were denied under the Muslim Ban, as well as other, additional refusal grounds “are not eligible for the fee exemption established by this final rule, unless a consular officer has previously determined . . . that the refusal on other grounds has been overcome and the only impediment to issuance of [the Muslim Ban.]” The new rule went into effect on January 20, 2022. The rule is an important and practical step to right the wrongs of the Muslim Ban and increase accessibility for immigrant visas.p