Federal authorities say more than 103,000 civil penalties have been issued since President Donald Trump returned to office, including daily fines against illegal immigrants who remain in the United States after receiving final removal orders.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Department of Homeland Security has imposed more than $84 billion in civil penalties on illegal immigrants who failed to leave the United States after being ordered removed, according to a July 23 agency statement.
DHS said approximately 103,000 fines have been issued since the beginning of the Trump administration as federal officials accelerate efforts to enforce removal orders and encourage voluntary departures.
Among the penalties is a charge of $998 for each day an illegal immigrant remains in the country after receiving a final order of removal and declining to depart voluntarily.
“Under President [Donald] Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, DHS is working faster than ever before to remove criminal illegal aliens from our country,” Lauren Bis, assistant secretary of the DHS Office of Public Affairs, said in the statement.
“Our message to illegal aliens is clear: LEAVE NOW. If you don’t, you will face the consequences, including fines, arrest, and deportation. Illegal aliens have a choice: They can use the CBP Home app and receive a free flight home and $2,600, or be fined, arrested, and deported.”
The administration’s enforcement campaign follows a federal rule announced by DHS and the Department of Justice in June 2025 that simplified how immigration-related financial penalties are issued and contested.
The rule eliminated a requirement that the government provide 30 days’ advance notice before imposing a fine. It also authorized immigration officers to deliver penalty notices through regular mail and shortened the procedure available to immigrants who challenge the assessments.
Federal officials said the changes were intended to make the collection process faster and more efficient while strengthening consequences for people who remain in the United States despite final removal orders.
The fines have also prompted legal challenges from immigration advocacy organizations.
The Legal Aid Justice Center announced July 8 that it had filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Virginia resident facing more than $1.8 million in immigration penalties.
According to the center, the individual entered the United States in 2016 with a minor child. A removal order was issued against both in 2017, and DHS assessed the multimillion-dollar penalty in February.
The lawsuit argues that the amount is “grossly disproportionate” to the individual’s financial circumstances.
“A $1.8 million fine is not immigration enforcement. It is government intimidation,” Rohmah Javed, director of the center’s Immigrant Justice Program, said in the statement.
“The federal government is reviving obscure enforcement powers to financially devastate immigrant families and send a chilling message. These fines are designed to create fear, not compliance, and no government agency should have unchecked power to impose this kind of life-destroying punishment.”
When DHS announced the streamlined process in June 2025, then-Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the administration intended to ensure that immigration laws carried enforceable consequences.
“The law doesn’t enforce itself; there must be consequences for breaking it,” McLaughlin said, adding that Trump was making the federal government more effective and efficient in enforcing immigration laws.
McLaughlin also said the prospect of substantial financial penalties gave illegal immigrants another reason to leave the country voluntarily before additional enforcement measures were taken.
The administration has paired the fines with an offer allowing eligible individuals to use the CBP Home application to arrange a free flight out of the United States and receive $2,600.
Supporters of the policy argue that voluntary departure is less costly and less resource-intensive than arrest, detention and formal deportation. Critics contend that the escalating fines can become financially impossible to pay and may be used primarily to pressure immigrant families.
Congressional Republicans are also seeking to increase financial consequences for unlawful entry and failure to comply with removal orders.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., introduced the Illegal Immigration Cost Recovery Act in June. The proposal would double civil penalties imposed on illegal immigrants who enter or attempt to enter the United States unlawfully.
The increased penalties would also apply to individuals who refuse or fail to depart after receiving a final removal order.
Scott’s bill would raise fines for employers who knowingly hire immigrants not authorized to work in the United States.
“Decades of open border policies have created an enormous and unfair cost burden on Americans that needs to be offset to make things right; meanwhile, those that entered our country illegally should face consequences for their actions,” Scott said in a June 11 statement.
“This commonsense bill enforces the law and ensures illegal aliens can’t keep ripping off our country and undermining the hardworking Americans who pay taxes and follow the rules.”
The DHS announcement signals that civil financial penalties have become a central component of the Trump administration’s broader immigration enforcement strategy, alongside arrests, deportations and incentives for voluntary departure.
Legal challenges are expected to test whether the size and administration of the penalties comply with constitutional and procedural protections, particularly in cases involving fines that reach hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.
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