Confiscation of property and huge fines: how migrants who do not want to self-deport will be punished

The Trump administration plans to fine migrants under deportation orders up to $998 a day if they fail to leave the United States and confiscate their property if they fail to pay, according to Reuters.

Photo: Zhanna Hapanovich | Dreamstime.com

The fines are based on a 1996 law that was first implemented in 2018, during President Donald Trump's first term.

(This refers to the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), passed on September 30, 1996, and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It was one of the most significant tightening of U.S. immigration laws at the time.

The law introduced the concept of unlawful presence and established penalties for those in the United States without permission. For example, if a person was in the country illegally for 180 days to a year, he or she was banned from entering the country for three years. If more than a year, he or she was banned for 3 years. These measures were not direct monetary penalties, but rather temporary barriers, but they laid the groundwork for subsequent financial penalties.

IIRIRA expanded the powers of immigration authorities, allowing them to deport illegal immigrants without lengthy court proceedings if they could not prove their legal presence. The law also increased penalties for companies that hired illegal immigrants. Employers could face fines of up to several thousand dollars for each such worker, and in some cases even suspension of operations. – Note.)

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The Trump administration intends to apply the penalties retroactively for up to five years, which could result in fines exceeding $1 million, said a senior Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Trump administration is considering confiscating the property of immigrants who don't pay fines, according to government emails.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said immigrants in the U.S. illegally should use a mobile app, formerly known as CBP One and renamed CBP Home under Trump, to "self-deport and leave the country right now."

"If they fail to do so, they will face consequences," McLaughlin said. "That includes a fine of $998 for each day they exceed the final order of removal."

The Department of Homeland Security warned of the fines in a social media post on March 31.

The White House has been pressuring U.S. Customs and Border Protection to take over the fines, confiscation of property from migrants who fail to pay fines, and the sale of their assets.
The Justice Department's Civil Asset Forfeiture Unit could be another option for carrying out forfeitures.

The planned fines target an estimated 1,4 million migrants who have been ordered removed by immigration courts.

White House pressure

Trump used the 1996 law during his first term to impose hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines on nine migrants who sought refuge in churches. The administration rescinded those sanctions but then imposed smaller fines of about $60 per person on at least four of those migrants, according to court documents.

President Joe Biden ended the practice of issuing such fines when he took office in 2021.

Scott Schuchart, Biden's top policy official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said migrants and their allies can fight the fines in court, but the threat of such action could have a deterrent effect.
"Their goal is not so much to enforce the law as to sow fear in communities," he noted.

Proposed property seizures from migrants who fail to comply with final orders of deportation could affect U.S. citizens or permanent residents living in the same household as them.
The immigration advocacy group FWD.us estimates that about 10 million migrants without legal status or temporary protection live with U.S. citizens or permanent residents in so-called mixed households.

High fines could hit low-income immigrants especially hard. An analysis of 2019 census data by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute found that 26% of households with unauthorized immigrants had incomes below the federal poverty line.

Trump has said people with final orders of deportation should be prioritized for removal, even though many have families, jobs and established ties in the U.S.

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The White House National Security Council and Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy, have been pressuring Customs and Border Protection to administer fines and forfeitures, a Customs and Border Protection official wrote in an email on March 31.

But a Customs and Border Protection memo dated the following day and reviewed by Reuters suggested shifting the task to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The memo noted that Customs and Border Protection systems do not currently support such immigration penalties, and upgrading them would result in significant costs and delays to the program.

The memo estimated that Customs and Border Protection would need at least 1000 new personnel to supplement its current staff of 313.

The date for the start of the application of fines remains unclear.

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