The Donald Trump administration plans to fine migrants under deportation orders up to $998 a day if they fail to leave the United States and to seize their property if they do not pay, according to documents reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday.
The fines stem from a 1996 law that was enforced for the first time in 2018, during Trump’s first term in office. The Trump administration plans to apply the penalties retroactively for up to five years, which could result in fines of more than $1 million, a senior Trump official said.
The Trump administration is also considering seizing the property of immigrants who do not pay the fines, the report stated.
In response to questions from Reuters, US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that immigrants in the US illegally should use a mobile app formerly known as CBP One – rebranded as CBP Home under Trump – to “self deport and leave the country now.”
“If they don’t, they will face the consequences,” McLaughlin said. “This includes a fine of $998 per day for every day that the illegal alien overstayed their final deportation order,” McLaughlin added.
Emails reviewed showed the White House has pressed US Customs and Border Protection to handle the issue of penalties, property seizures for migrants who don’t pay, and the sale of their assets.
The Department of Justice’s civil asset forfeiture division could be another option for the seizures, one email said.
Trump kicked off a sweeping immigration crackdown after taking office in January, testing the bounds of US law to increase arrests and deportations. The planned fines target the roughly 1.4 million migrants who have been ordered removed by an immigration judge.
Trump invoked the 1996 law during his first term to levy fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars against nine migrants seeking sanctuary in churches. The administration then withdrew the penalties. President Joe Biden stopped issuing the fines and rescinded related policies when he took office in 2021.
The proposed asset seizures against the migrants who fail to comply with final deportation orders could impact US citizens or permanent residents in their households.
The immigration advocacy group FWD.us estimates that some 10 million migrants with no legal status or temporary protections are living with US citizens or permanent residents in what are known as “mixed status households.”
The steep fines could hit lower-income immigrants, the report noted. An analysis of 2019 Census data by the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute found 26 per cent of households with unauthorised immigrants had incomes below the federal poverty line.
Emmanuel Addeh
Follow us on:
