Can I help my husband get his papers without having to pay so much money?

If he entered the US unlawfully, he is not eligible to legalize his status within the US. He would have to go back to his home country to consular process but as soon as he leaves the US, he will trigger an automatic 10 year bar to reentry, which can only be waived by a showing of extreme hardship to a US citizen spouse, which is fairly difficult to do in most cases.

You touched on couple of issues without providing important information in your question. You did not tell us how did your husband enter the country? If he entered illegally, you can file his petition but he would have to leave the country; the fees would be around $1000; if he entered with a visa and overstayed his allowed time of stay, you can file an immediate family petition for him without the need of leaving the U.S., the fees would be around $1500.00. Another concern you mentioned is the Department of Children and families, why is he being threatened, is there any court order against him, why are they threatening him with deportation? Good luck.

While I certainly understand the difficult situation in which you and your spouse find yourselves, I would recommend that you find an immigration attorney to assist you with your spouse's immigration paperwork and that you not choose the one the offers to handle the job at the cheapest rate. Truth is that with the circumstances that you have discussed, it would appear that your spouse may be required to return to Mexico in order to properly obtain his resident status in the US. And there are a number of changes in this process which the Obama Administration has recently announced but which have not yet gone into effect. This process is somewhat difficult and it requires an attorney who is knowledgeable in the difficulties that always come with filing an application for a "waiver" which would appear to be required in this case because of your spouse's unlawful presence here in the US. In addition, the presence of DCF in the picture makes me question why the state government is involved in family life. DCF does not generally get involved in matters relating to one's deportation from the US and although their job is to see that children's needs are met, their general operating guideline is to keep families together. So while I understand that you cannot share the entire story, it would appear to me that there is a lot going on in this case and the assistance of an immigration attorney may be a really good idea. there are many of us out there, some charge consultation fees and others do not. Some charge a lot more for their services than others do. At the end of it, however, you will generally receive what you pay for when it comes to hiring an immigration attorney. Good luck.

The immigration process can be very expensive and full of pitfalls. I recommend you hire a legal professional to help you navigate through the process. If money is hard to come by, try contacting Catholic Charities. They can provide assistance for a small fee.

Every lawyer will charge different fees so you'll need to ask around. However, a spousal application is not particularly expensive in comparison with most other immigration petitions. The challenge is that the government filing fees generally start at over $1000 as you'll be looking to adjust status to permit your husband to remain in the country while the application processes - and that cost adds greatly to the process.