Wendy Ortiz was surprised to discover that the United States immigration authorities were being fined for being in the country illegally, but it was the amount that really surprised her: $ 1.8 million.
Ortiz, 32, who wins $ 13 per hour in his work at a meat pocket plant in Pennsylvania, has lived in the United States for a decade, after fleeing from El Salvador to escape a violent gang threats, he said in an interview and in immigration documents. His salary barely covers the rent and expenses for his autistic son of 6 -year -old American citizens.
“It’s not fair,” he said. “Where will someone find so much money?”
In recent weeks, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has begun to operationalize a plan for migrant multiples that do not leave the USA. UU. After a final deportation order, issuing notices at 4,500 migrants with sanctions for a total of more than $ 500 million, said a senior Trump official, requesting the anonymity to share internal figures.
Reuters spoke with eight immigration lawyers throughout the country that said their customers had been fined for several thousand dollars just over $ 1.8 million.
The recipients of the notices were informed that they had 30 days to dispute, in writing, under oath, and with evidence of why penalty should not be imposed.
The steep fines are part of Trump’s aggressive impulse so that immigrants in the United States illegally abandon the country voluntarily, or “self -sport.”
The Trump administration plan, whose details were reported for the first time by Reuters in April, include imposing fines of $ 998 per day for migrants who did not abandon the US. UU. After a deportation order.
The administration planned to issue fines retroactively for up to five years, Reuters reported. Under that framework, the maximum would be $ 1.8 million. Then, the government would consider confiscating the property of immigrants who could not pay.
It is not clear exactly how the Trump administration would collect the fines and seize the property.
Bewildered immigration lawyers
The fines reviewed by Reuters were issued by the application of immigration and customs of the United States, but a separate agency, customs and border protection has been requested, which processes them and manages possible falsifications, Reuters reported in April.
CBP is still working on complicated logistics to make seizures, said a CBP official, requesting anonymity.
The United States National Security Department did not respond to a request for comments. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in April that immigrants in the United States should “deport and leave the country now.”
The fines come from a 1996 law that was enforced for the first time in 2018, during Trump’s first mandate, and are directed to the approximately 1.4 million migrants who have been ordered by an immigration judge.
The Trump administration withdrew fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars against nine migrants who sought sanctuary in the churches in their first term after a legal challenge, but proceeded with smaller sanctions. The administration of Joe Biden removed the fines in 2021.
Robert Scott, an immigration lawyer based in New York City, said he was baffled when one of his clients, a Mexican low -income woman who has lived in the United States for 25 years, also received a fine of $ 1.8 million.
“At first you look like this and you think it’s false,” he said. “I’ve never seen a customer receive something like this.”
Scott said the woman received a final deportation order in 2013, but was not aware of her at that time. The woman presented a motion last year to reopen the elimination order, which is still pending, said Scott.
“She hasn’t been hiding,” he said. “I find it curious that they choose someone like that. I don’t know if it’s random, I don’t know if it’s under school fruit. I don’t know.”
Looking for relief, the goal
After crossing the border in 2015, Ortiz was released to pursue his asylum claim when an officer discovered that he had a credible fear of persecution, according to the documents. But she said that she never received a hearing notice from the Immigration Court and that she was ordered after not appearing to the Court in 2018.
Ortiz’s immigration lawyer requested the humanitarian relief of the United States government on January 8, saying that he faced danger in El Salvador and that his son would not have access to services for autistic children. The petition requested “fiscal discretion” and that the government reopened and dismisses its case.
Twelve days later, Trump assumed the position and launched his wide repression of immigration.
Rosina Stambaugh, Ortiz’s lawyer, said she had requested an extension of 30 days and was considering ways of fighting the fine in court.
“She is the mother of an autistic girl, she has no criminal record and has all her background information,” Stambauch said. “I think it’s absolutely crazy.”
The lawyers said that the clients who received the notices also included spouses of US citizens, who actively tried to legalize their immigration status.
Rosa, an American citizen in New York, said her Honduran husband received a fine of $ 5,000. She said that her husband could not leave the country after receiving a voluntary departure in 2018 because she was diagnosed with uterine cancer. She hopes that once explain the situation, that the fine can be renounced. If not, he said, he will have to work many additional hours to pay it.
“It’s one thing after another,” he said. “This whole process has cost us a lot of money.”
