The Department of Homeland Security announced a partnership with the Department of Justice that will make it "easier and more efficient" to fine undocumented migrants who fail to self-deport.
The new rule gets rid of the 30-day period of notice of the intent to fine requirement before a fine is issued. Now, the announcement said, DHS immigration officers are authorized to send fines to undocumented migrants by regular mail, shortening the process that applies if migrants contest their files.
"The law doesn't enforce itself; there must be consequences for breaking it," said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "President Trump and Secretary Noem are standing up for law and order and making our government more effective and efficient at enforcing the American people's immigration laws. Financial penalties like these are just one more reason why illegal aliens should use CBP Home to self-deport now before it's too late."
The new rule, DHS says, will be applied to immigrants who entered the U.S. unlawfully, those who ignore removal orders or delay their removal and those who do not honor agreements to comply with judges' voluntary departure orders.
Fines for these migrants will vary depending on the action they committed. For instance, for unlawful entry or attempted entry, undocumented migrants will be fined between $100-$500, for failure to "honor a voluntary departure order," fines will range between $1,992-$9,970, and for "willfully failing to comply with a removal order," fines will be up to $998.
DHS announced in late March that it would impose fines as high as $998 per day on those who had received an order to leave but stayed. Fines of up to $5,000 were threatened for those who said they would self-deport, but did not, WJBC reports. The fines are based on a 1996 law first enforced in 2018, during Trump's first term, and target approximately 1.4 million migrants who have deportation orders.
The financial fines are in addition to potential imprisonment for failing to self-deport and a strong likelihood of being refused legal status of later submitting a proper immigration request through the government.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, nearly 10,000 fines had been issued as of June 13. Migrants who choose to self-deport using the CBP Home app had their fines waved, the department asserts.
Cases of migrants being fined exorbitant fines since DHS' original announcement have gained attention in the media. For instance, a May report from Reuters highlighted eight immigration lawyers who detailed how their clients had been fined up to $1.8 million for not self-deporting.
Likewise, in South Florida, an undocumented mother said back in May that she had been fined $1.8 million, despite being unable to return to her native Honduras due to increasing gang violence, Telemundo 51 reported.
"They're charging me because I've been in this country illegally since 2005," she said in Spanish. "I have no way to pay for it."
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