President Trump is done playing games with illegal immigrants who refuse to leave after receiving deportation orders. The administration announced a bold new plan to impose hefty $998 daily fines on migrants who overstay their deportation orders. It's not stopping there, either; it will also seize property from those who don't pay up.
This is exactly the kind of decisive action we need to address our immigration crisis. The fines stem from a 1996 law that Trump first utilized during his first term in 2018. The Biden administration, naturally, had halted this practice when it took office in 2021. But now it is back, and this time, the administration is taking it several steps further by applying penalties retroactively for up to five years.
Naturally, the left is already crying foul, because that’s what they do whenever Trump does something. Former ICE policy official Scott Shuchart tried to paint this enforcement action as some kind of scare tactic, claiming, "Their point isn't really to enforce the law, it's to project fear in communities."
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That’s cute, but let’s be honest here about what’s actually happening. Trump's goal with this policy is to get illegal immigrants who have been ordered to leave the United States to actually follow the law. As DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin plainly stated, "If they don't, they will face the consequences. This includes a fine of $998 per day for every day that the illegal alien overstayed their final deportation order.”
It's nice to have a president who understands that allowing 1.4 million people with deportation orders to simply ignore them makes a mockery of our immigration system.
The Department of Homeland Security issued the warning about potential fines in a March 31 social media post, U.S. News reports.
Internal emails show the White House is pushing U.S. Customs and Border Protection to handle not just the fines, but also property seizures and asset sales for those who refuse to pay. The Department of Justice's civil asset forfeiture division could get involved as well.
Trump has said people with final deportation orders should be a priority for removal although many have families, jobs and established ties in the U.S.
The White House National Security Council and Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy, have been pressing CBP to administer the fines and handle seizures, a CBP official wrote in a March 31 email reviewed by Reuters.
But a CBP memo a day later, also reviewed by Reuters, argued for ICE to take on the task instead. The memo said that CBP's systems do not currently support this type of immigration fine and that upgrading it could lead to significant costs and implementation delays.
The memo anticipated CBP would need at least 1,000 new paralegal specialists, up from the current staffing of 313.
President Trump promised to restore order to our immigration system, and that's exactly what he's doing. Those who choose to ignore deportation orders will soon face serious financial consequences. And if they still refuse to comply? They'll find out the hard way that this administration means business when it comes to enforcing our nation's immigration laws.
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