Some 4,500 migrants told to pay fines ranging up to $1.8 million
Source: NBC News/Reuters
May 20, 2025, 12:27 PM EDT / Source: Reuters
Wendy Ortiz was surprised to find out she was being fined by U.S. immigration authorities for being in the country illegally — but it was the amount that truly shocked her: $1.8 million. Ortiz, 32, who earns $13 an hour in her job at a meatpacking plant in Pennsylvania, has lived in the United States for a decade, after fleeing El Salvador to escape a violent ex-partner and gang threats, she said in an interview and in immigration paperwork.
Her salary barely covers rent and expenses for her autistic 6-year-old U.S.-citizen son. “It’s not fair,” she said. “Where is someone going to find that much money?” In the last few weeks, U.S. President Donald Trump has started to operationalize a plan to fine migrants who fail to leave the U.S. after a final deportation order, issuing notices to 4,500 migrants with penalties totaling more than $500 million, a senior Trump official said, requesting anonymity to share internal figures.
The Trump administration plan, details of which were first reported by Reuters in April, include levying fines of $998 per day for migrants who failed to leave the U.S. after a deportation order.
Reuters spoke with eight immigration lawyers around the country who said their clients had been fined from several thousand dollars to just over $1.8 million. The recipients of the notices were informed that they had 30 days to contest, in writing, under oath, and with evidence as to why the penalty should not be imposed. The steep fines are part of Trump’s aggressive push to get immigrants in the U.S. illegally to leave the country voluntarily, or “self deport.”
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/4500-migrants-told-pay-fines-ranging-18-million-rcna207958
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Let's just fine minimum wage workers Seventy Bajillion Dollars... I'm sure they can just withdraw it from their trust fund like "normal" people.
