According a report from Reuters, in the past few weeks, the Trump administration has started issuing monetary fines to migrants who fail to leave the United States after a final order of removal (a deportation order) from an immigration judge. The plan was first reported by Reuters in early April, which reported that the administration plans to fine such migrants up to $998 per day if they fail to leave the United States, for up to five years—resulting in a total maximum fine of $1.8 million—and the administration may attempt to seize their property as well.  

Wendy Ortiz, a meatpacking plant worker in Pennsylvania, was sent a notice from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement indicating that she was being fined the maximum amount of $1.8 million, even though she was actively seeking humanitarian protections in immigration court. Another who received the maximum fine is a Mexican woman who has resided in the United States for 25 years.  

So far, according to Reuters, the Trump administration has issued notices to 4,500 migrants with penalties totaling more than $500 million, which includes others who have received the maximum penalty of $1.8 million. Some of the people fined include spouses of U.S. citizens who were in the process of regularizing their immigration status. At least some individuals have been told they can have 30 days to contest the fine and can request an interview, and present evidence that they are in the country legally, but they may run the risk of further exposing themselves to being detained or disappeared without due process if they engage further with immigration authorities. 

This policy is based on a 1996 law, at 8 U.S.C. §1324d, “Civil penalties for failure to depart,” which permits DHS to order payment of a civil penalty of up to $500 per day for each day that a person willfully fails or refuses to depart from the U.S. after an order of removal. It is also possibly based on other sections of U.S. law which also permit similar penalties, like 8 U.S.C. §1253, “Penalties related to removal.” However, these laws had never previously been enforced ; and the first time they were was in 2018, during the first Trump administration, when the administration sought fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars against nine migrants who sought sanctuary in churches. As Reuters notes, the Trump administration withdrew the fines from the first term after a legal challenge, but proceeded with smaller penalties, and the Biden administration dropped the fines in 2021. 

Impact: The policy of monetary fines for the estimated 1.4 million migrants with final orders of removal is intended to scare people into voluntarily departing from the United States. That would save time and money for the Trump administration, which would otherwise have to carry out the deportations of these persons in order to meet their campaign pledge and stated policy agenda of mass deportation, despite not yet having much newly allocated funding or personnel to do so. However, many of the 1.4 million people who may be targeted by this policy have been allowed to remain in the United States and have permits allowing them to work lawfully, because the government has allowed them to remain under an order of supervision or granted them a waiver. Many of these people may already be checking in regularly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and many may be actively trying to regularize their status.