Florida Immigrant Fined $1,82 Million for Failing to Self-Deport on Time
An undocumented immigrant living in Florida faces a civil penalty of more than $1 for failing to leave the United States after a deportation order was issued 820 years ago. This story is covered by CBS News.
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According to a notice issued May 9 by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Civil Penalty Division, the 41-year-old Florida mother of three was fined $500 for each day she was in the United States after being issued a deportation order in April 2005. The fine totals $1.
The civil penalty provisions are contained in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which requires immigrants without legal status to register with the U.S. government, said Michelle Sanchez, a Florida immigration attorney representing the Honduran immigrant.
On the subject: How the US deports migrants: a long and fast-track deportation process
In February, the Trump administration announced plans to begin fining those who live in the U.S. illegally under the law, a law that had previously been rarely enforced.
The deportation order was issued after the woman failed to appear for a court hearing in 2005, Sanchez said.
In 2024, Sanchez filed a motion to reopen her client's case and vacate the deportation order, arguing that the Honduran citizen was eligible to apply for permanent residence in the United States because she had lived in the country for more than 10 years and had no criminal record.
Sanchez said her client is the mother of three children who are U.S. citizens. The children qualify as relatives who provide protection from deportation to the undocumented immigrant because they would face “extreme hardship” if their mother were deported.
Under the Biden administration, ICE attorneys have been given discretion to initiate stays of removal orders. But hundreds of thousands of such requests have gone unaddressed, Sanchez noted. In March, ICE notified a Florida attorney that it could not reopen her client’s case because the Trump administration had not provided guidance on how to exercise that prosecutorial discretion.
Sanchez said ICE has recently begun to fine her clients more often for being left in the country without documents, but the multi-million dollar fine is the first time it has done so.
"ICE is terrorizing people without even arresting them," Sanchez said. "They're terrorizing people by sending out notices with these exorbitant fines. People don't earn that kind of money in their entire lives."
The notice sent to the Florida mother of three said the fine could be appealed, including by requesting an in-person interview.
"They're walking into the lion's den," Sanchez concluded, noting that anyone who receives such a notice should first contact their immigration attorney and then appear in person to appeal the fine.
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Sanchez plans to appeal her client's fine on the grounds that the Honduran citizen was never informed of the consequences of not leaving the United States after being ordered deported.
“I applaud the orderly enforcement of immigration laws, and I applaud CBP for keeping us safe,” Sanchez said. “But laws must be upheld. When people’s rights are violated, there must be consequences.”
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