(The Epoch Times)—The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Thursday that more than $84 billion worth of civil fines have been imposed on illegal immigrants for their refusal to exit the United States.
In total, 103,000 such fines have been issued to illegal immigrants since the beginning of the Trump administration, the DHS said in a July 23 statement.
The fines include a $998 per day charge levied on any illegal immigrant who does not leave the country voluntarily, even after a final order for removal has been issued in their name.
“Under President [Donald] Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, DHS is working faster than ever before to remove criminal illegal aliens from our country,” Lauren Bis, assistant secretary of the DHS’s Office of Public Affairs, said in the statement.
“Our message to illegal aliens is clear: LEAVE NOW. If you don’t, you will face the consequences, including fines, arrest, and deportation. Illegal aliens have a choice: They can use the CBP Home app and receive a free flight home and $2,600, or be fined, arrested, and deported.”
In June last year, the DHS and the Department of Justice announced a new federal rule streamlining the process of issuing fines for illegal immigrants, making it more efficient and easier.
The update removed a provision that provided illegal immigrants a 30-day notice of the intent to fine them before fines are actually imposed. It also authorized DHS immigration officers to send fines to illegal immigrants through regular mail and shortened the process applied when illegal immigrants contest their penalties.
The fining of illegal immigrants has faced legal challenges. In a July 8 statement, the Legal Aid Justice Center announced filing a lawsuit on behalf of an illegal immigrant from Virginia who is facing over $1.8 million in immigration fines.
The individual entered the United States in 2016 with a minor child. In 2017, an order of removal was issued against both individuals. In February, DHS assessed an over $1.8 million fine against the individual. The lawsuit accused the fines of being “grossly disproportionate” to the plaintiff’s economic circumstances.
“A $1.8 million fine is not immigration enforcement. It is government intimidation,” Rohmah Javed, director of the Immigrant Justice Program at the center, said in the statement.
“The federal government is reviving obscure enforcement powers to financially devastate immigrant families and send a chilling message. These fines are designed to create fear, not compliance, and no government agency should have unchecked power to impose this kind of life-destroying punishment.”
In June last year, when the DHS announced the streamlined process for fining illegal immigrants, the then-DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “The law doesn’t enforce itself; there must be consequences for breaking it,” adding that Trump was making the government more effective and efficient at enforcing immigration laws.
The financial penalty on illegal immigrants is one more reason why they must self-deport from the United States before it’s too late, McLaughlin said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) introduced the Illegal Immigration Cost Recovery Act last month that seeks to double the civil financial penalties imposed on illegal immigrants who enter or attempt to enter the United States, the lawmaker’s office said in a June 11 statement.
The higher penalties would also apply to individuals with a final order of removal from the United States who fail or refuse to exit the country.
Employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants for work despite them not being authorized to be employed in the United States will face increased financial penalties as well.
“Decades of open border policies have created an enormous and unfair cost burden on Americans that needs to be offset to make things right; meanwhile, those that entered our country illegally should face consequences for their actions,” Scott said in the statement.
“This commonsense bill enforces the law and ensures illegal aliens can’t keep ripping off our country and undermining the hardworking Americans who pay taxes and follow the rules.”
