Paula

WASHINGTON — Late last month, an immigrant seeking asylum in the U.S. came across social media posts urging her to pay a new fee imposed by the Trump administration before Oct. 1, or else risk her case being dismissed.

Paula, a 40-year-old Los Angeles-area immigrant from Mexico, whose full name The Times is withholding because she fears retribution, applied for asylum in 2021 and her case is now on appeal.

But when Paula tried to pay the $100 annual fee, she couldn’t find an option on the immigration court’s website that accepted fees for pending asylum cases. Afraid of deportation — and with just five hours before the payment deadline — she selected the closest approximation she could find, $110 for an appeal filed before July 7.

She knew it was likely incorrect. Still, she felt it was better to pay for something, rather than nothing at all, as a show of good faith. Unable to come up with the money on such short notice, Paula, who works in a warehouse repairing purses, paid the fee with a credit card.

“I hope that money isn’t wasted,” she said.

That remains unclear because of confusion and misinformation surrounding the rollout of a host of new fees or fee increases for a variety of immigration services. The fees are part of the sweeping budget bill President Trump signed into law in July.

Paula was one of thousands of asylum seekers across the country who panicked after seeing messages on social media urging them to pay the new fee before the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.

But government messaging about the fees has sometimes been chaotic and contradictory, immigration attorneys say. Some asylum seekers have received notice about the fees, while others have not. Misinformation surged as immigrants scrambled to figure out whether, and how, to pay.

Advocates worry the confusion serves as a way for immigration officials to dismiss more asylum cases, which would render the applicants deportable.

The fees vary. For those seeking asylum, there is a $100 fee for new applications, as well as a yearly fee of $100 for pending applications. The fee for an initial work permit is $550 and work permit renewals can be as much as $795.

Amy Grenier, associate director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Assn., said that not having a clear way to pay a fee might seem like a small government misstep, but the legal consequences are substantial.

For new asylum applications, she said, some immigration judges set a payment deadline of Sept. 30, even though the Executive Office for Immigration Review only updated the payment portal in the last week of September.

“The lack of coherent guidance and structure to pay the fee only compounded the inefficiency of our immigration courts,” Grenier said. “There are very real consequences for asylum-seekers navigating this completely unnecessary bureaucratic mess.”

Two agencies collect the asylum fees: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), under the Department of Homeland Security, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), under the Department of Justice, which operates immigration courts.

Both agencies initially released different instructions regarding the fees, and only USCIS has provided an avenue for payment.

The departments of Homeland Security and Justice didn’t respond to a request for comment. The White House deferred to USCIS.

USCIS spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser said the asylum fee is being implemented consistent with the law.

“The real losers in this are the unscrupulous and incompetent immigration attorneys who exploit their clients and bog down the system with baseless asylum claims,” he said.

The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP), a national membership organization, sued the Trump administration earlier this month after thousands of members shared their confusion over the new fees, arguing that the federal agencies involved “threaten to deprive asylum seekers of full and fair consideration of their claims.”

The organization also argued the fees shouldn’t apply to people whose cases were pending before Trump signed the budget package into law.

In a U.S. district court filing Monday, Justice Department lawyers defended the fees, saying, “Congress made clear that these new asylum fees were long overdue and necessary to recover the growing costs of adjudicating the millions of pending asylum applications.”

Some of the confusion resulted from contradictory information.

A notice by USCIS in the July 22 Federal Register confused immigrants and legal practitioners alike because of a reference to Sept. 30. Anyone who had applied for asylum as of Oct. 1, 2024, and whose application was still pending by Sept. 30, was instructed to pay a fee. Some thought the notice meant that Sept. 30 was the deadline to pay the yearly asylum fee.

By this month, USCIS clarified on its website that it will “issue personal notices” alerting asylum applicants when their annual fee is due, how to pay it and the consequences for failing to do so.

The agency created a payment portal and began sending out notices Oct. 1, instructing recipients to pay within 30 days.

But many asylum seekers are still waiting to be notified by USCIS, according to ASAP, the advocacy organization. Some have received texts or physical mail telling them to check their USCIS account, while others have resorted to checking their accounts daily.

Meanwhile the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) didn’t add a mechanism for paying the $100 fee for pending asylum cases — the one Paula hoped to pay — until Thursday.

In its Oct. 3 complaint, lawyers for ASAP wrote: “Troublingly, ASAP has received reports that some immigration judges at EOIR are already requiring applicants to have paid the annual asylum fee, and in at least one case even rejected an asylum application and ordered an asylum seeker removed for non-payment of the annual asylum fee, despite the agency providing no way to pay this fee.”

An immigration lawyer in San Diego, who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution, said an immigration judge denied his client’s asylum petition because the client had not paid the new fee, even though there was no way to pay it.

The judge issued an order, which was shared with The Times, that read, “Despite this mandatory requirement, to date the respondents have not filed proof of payment for the annual asylum fee.”

The lawyer called the decision a due process violation. He said he now plans to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, though another fee increase under Trump’s spending package raised that cost from $110 to $1,010. He is litigating the case pro bono.

Justice Department lawyers said Monday that EOIR had eliminated the initial inconsistency by revising its position to reflect that of USCIS and will soon send out official notices to applicants, giving them 30 days to make the payment.

“There was no unreasonable delay here in EOIR’s implementation,” the filing said. “…The record shows several steps were required to finalize EOIR’s process, including coordination with USCIS. Regardless, Plaintiff’s request is now moot.”

Immigrants like Paula, who is a member of ASAP, recently got some reassurance. In a court declaration, EOIR Director Daren Margolin wrote that for anyone who made anticipatory or advance payments for the annual asylum fee, “those payments will be applied to the alien’s owed fees, as appropriate.”

When 6-foot-5, 315-pound all-league offensive tackle Jorge Gonzalez of Santa Paula High had to take a mandatory two-week break this summer under the Southern Section dead period rules, he didn’t just sit at home. He went to the wheat fields of Santa Barbara and earned money using a weed whacker eight hours a day so he could buy a car.

“My uniform turned green,” he said of his daily work in the fields.

The Santa Paula community is heavily involved in the agriculture business, and football coach Myke Morales said many of his players have worked in the fields.

Gonzalez is a three-year starter with a 3.8 grade-point average and made the trip to Ventura on Thursday for a Tri County League media day that also featured players from Agoura, Hueneme, Dos Pueblos, San Marcos and Fillmore.

Morales and Fillmore’s Charles Weis discussed their 100-year-old rivalry game played at the end of each season. It’s unlike any other as far as uniting both communities.

“It’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Weis said. “It’s a community event. It’s what’s right is for high school football.”

Agoura is ready to welcome back quarterback Gavin Gray, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the fourth game last season. He’ll have baseball standout Tyler Starling at receiver, plus the Chargers have running back George Hastings, who will become No. 7 on the roster.

Dos Pueblos returns all-league receiver Micah Barnhart.

Hueneme has high hopes for running back Jeremiah Alvarado.

San Marcos might have one of the best multi-sport athletes in the state in elite golfer Austin Downing, who’s also a kicker and plays baseball.

Fillmore will rely on four players who will be three-year starters — linebacker Carlos Cabral, receiver Mauricio Ocegueda, lineman Marcus Lechuga and lineman Genaro Villela.

All the coaches are preparing for possible disruptions because of wildfires and have had experiences in the past.

“Every year, we’re problem-solving,” Dos Pueblos coach AJ Pateras said. “We just navigate.”

In the late 1990s, Paula Deen was an independent restaurateur whose family-operated restaurant had just received a glowing review from USA Today. Her life and career were permanently changed.

Now, over 25 years later, the Georgia native has announced the closing of the Lady and Sons — the iconic restaurant that made her a star of Southern cuisine and a household name in the cooking world.

Opened in downtown Savannah, Ga., in 1996, the Lady and Sons boasted a menu of local classics like fried green tomatoes, banana pudding and hoecakes. The signature dish, Southern fried chicken, was enough to draw lines wrapping around the block — and the restaurant came to be viewed as an embodiment of the indulgent and buttery flavors that characterize Southern cooking.

“There in Savannah, Paula Deen’s homestyle Southern menu at the Lady and Sons turned me into a ravenous beast, unmindful of manners, cholesterol, North-South diplomacy and the dropped jaws of my companions,” USA Today, then the nation’s most-read daily newspaper, wrote on Dec. 17, 1999.

Earlier that year, the popularity of the Lady and Sons caught the attention of Food Network journalist Gordon Elliott. Deen appeared on Elliott’s short-lived show “Door Knock Dinners” that led to her own Daytime Emmy-winning Food Network program, “Paula’s Home Cooking.”

On her website and social media accounts, Deen bid farewell to the Lady and Sons and its longtime fans. Also closing is her newer restaurant, the Chicken Box, which opened in 2023.

“Hey, y’all, my sons and I made the heartfelt decision that Thursday, July 31st, was the last day of service for The Lady & Sons and The Chicken Box,” Deen said in the statement. “We will now focus our attention on the four Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen locations across the country.”

The announcement came without warning, especially as the restaurant continued to draw tours and lines of customers. Three weeks prior to the announcement, the Lady and Sons posted on Instagram that it was hiring for all positions.

Over the years, some of Deen’s other restaurants have also closed suddenly. In 2014, employees at Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House — a Savannah eatery she co-owned with her brother, Earl W. “Bubba” Hiers Jr. — reportedly arrived to work to find the doors locked and the appliances removed. A sign on the door said, “Thank you for 10 great years. Uncle Bubba’s is now closed.”

The Panama City, Fla., location of Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen also closed abruptly in 2019, laying off 30 employees without advance notice. Several former employees told local news channel WJHG that they were left without their main source of income following the closure.

Uncle Bubba’s closure came a year after controversy began to surround Deen after a former manager at the restaurant sued Hiers, alleging sexual and racial discrimination.

Food Network canceled “Paula’s Home Cooking” after Deen admitted to using a racial slur during a deposition for the 2013 lawsuit. Lawyers asked Deen if she had ever used the N-word, to which Deen replied, “Yes, of course,” later adding, “It’s been a very long time.”

Since then, the 78-year-old has focused on her restaurants.

The Lady and Sons, as her core establishment, was the result of a litany of personal struggles and ambition. Both of her parents passed away when she was in her early 20s and Deen, then a young mother, struggled with depression and agoraphobia, or fear of going outside.

With only $200 left, Deen founded a catering company out of her kitchen called the Bag Lady. Her handmade bag lunches were delivered by her sons Jamie and Bobby and earned Deen a local reputation for her homestyle cooking. After one attempt at a restaurant, the Lady in 1991, the follow-up, the Lady and Sons, co-owned with Jamie and Bobby, would be her success.

ATLANTA — The center fielder for the Dodgers’ Class A Great Lakes affiliate is a former first-round draft pick. The other two outfielders were selected for the Futures Game.

Who’s the best outfielder on the team?

“We’re all good, brother,” said the left fielder, Josue De Paula. “We’ve all got talent. We all excel somewhere.

“Us together? It’s a dream squad. I don’t feel like you see that much talent that often.”

De Paula flashed his considerable talent Saturday, hitting a three-run homer that decided the National League’s 4-2 victory over the American League and earned him the Futures Game most valuable player award.

The only other Dodgers prospect to win that award: infielder Chin-Lung Hu, in 2007.

“This is definitely motivating for me,” De Paula said. “Mentally, it was a big moment, to prove, especially to myself, who I really am.”

De Paula’s home run traveled 416 feet, triggering a round of fireworks in the sky and a lump in De Paula’s throat as he crossed home plate.

“I was overtaken by emotion,” he said, “especially doing it in front of my dad.”

His father lives in New York City. The Midwest League is far away.

Perhaps the major leagues are not so far away. De Paula is 20, but he is in his fourth pro season. The Dodgers signed him out of the Dominican Republic, but he was born in New York City and he is a second cousin of former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury.

“Baseball called me,” De Paula said. “I fell in love with it at a young age.”

Zyhir Hope, the Great Lakes right fielder, also appeared in the Futures Game. He singled ahead of De Paula and scored on the home run, so he was waiting at home plate to congratulate De Paula.

“We do it often,” De Paula said, smiling.

Hope, also 20, smiled when asked what he liked about De Paula’s game.

“Everything,” he said. “He takes it easily. He’s calm, relaxed and laid back, but he works hard. He’s a great dude.”

Before the season, Baseball Prospectus ranked De Paula and Hope among the top 10 prospects in baseball. Currently, MLB Pipeline ranks both among the top 40.

De Paula offers power, speed, and advanced plate discipline, although scouts wonder whether he can stick in left field or might need to try first base or designated hitter. Hope has advanced from a good-fielding prospect with uncertain hitting skills in the Chicago Cubs’ system — the Dodgers got him in the Michael Busch trade — to a gap hitter with speed.

This is the time of year, of course, where contenders trade prospects to fill major league needs. Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, rarely trades his top prospects, and De Paula ranks No. 1 in the Dodgers’ farm system. On the other hand, the Dodgers need pitching help.

“I do want to get to L.A. I hope that’s in God’s plans,” De Paula said. “At the end of the day, we never make the decisions. We’ve just got to focus on what we need to do on the field and whatever happens, happens.

“But I really do hope I become a Dodger and I stay there for a very long time.”