The eye-popping fine illegal migrants will have to pay
Story by Jon Michael Raasch, U.S. Political Reporter, Daily Mail, 4/8/25
The Trump administration has announced fines for illegal immigrants under deportation orders who refuse to leave the country.
Those who are in the U.S. illegally and refuse to leave will be charged $998 per day until they go, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced.
‘If they don’t [leave], they will face the consequences,’ a DHS spokesperson said.
‘This includes a fine of $998 per day for every day that the illegal alien overstayed their final deportation order.’
Officials are planning to roll out the fines under a rarely used 1996 law that allows fines to be imposed on those avoiding removal orders.
The law was first enforced in 2018 under the Republican’s first term.
However, Joe Biden‘s administration suspended the rule in 2021, saying the penalties were ‘ineffective and unnecessary punitive measures.’
One senior Trump administration official said the fines will be retroactive up to five years, dating back to 2019, which could result in penalties totaling over $1 million in some circumstances.
The fines reportedly would only apply to the 1.6 million migrants in the U.S. facing deportation orders.
The administration also has plans to seize the property of those who refuse to cough up the cash for the fines, according to White House emails reviewed by Reuters.
U.S. officials on those emails discussed how the Department of Justice’s civil asset forfeiture division could be used to help with seizing the migrant’s assets.
DHS previously warned in a social media post on March 31 that fines were being considered for migrants found not in compliance with their deportation orders.
During Trump’s first administration Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued fines ranging from $300,000 to $500,000 to migrants who refused to depart the U.S. by taking refuge in churches.
In 2019, Edith Espinal Moreno, a migrant from Mexico, was ordered to pay $497,000 for ‘failing to depart the U.S. as previously agreed.’
Moreno had overstayed her deportation order by two years and took refuge at an Ohio church during that time.
Eventually, ICE dismissed the fine.
Emails discussing the new fines showed that White House Deputy Chief of Staff for policy Stephen Miller was pushing for the reimplementation.
During those talks, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials requested that ICE take the lead on issuing the fines, arguing that CBP does not have the necessary infrastructure to administer the penalties.
When the fines could be implemented remains unclear.