ICE using fines, lawsuits to pressure migrants to 'self-deport,' attorneys say
Source: ABC News
September 9, 2025, 5:05 AM
The Trump administration is suing migrants with removal orders and issuing fines of up to $1.8 million to pressure them into self-deporting, immigration attorneys tell ABC News.
In recent months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revived a rarely enforced 1996 law, using it to issue fines to migrants with deportation orders as part of the administration's aggressive immigration crackdown. The notices order them to voluntarily leave the U.S. to avoid the monetary penalty.
Merle Kahn, an attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said the fines were never used until 2017, during the first Trump administration. She told ABC News that during Trump's first term the fines were rarely used, and when Joe Biden took office as president, he rescinded all of them.
"Now, they have started issuing the fines again, and they've increased them," Kahn said. "They could be fined over $1.8 million if they have an outstanding deportation order and didn't leave."
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/ice-fines-lawsuits-pressure-migrants-deport-attorneys/story?id=125368916

mdbl
(7,376 posts)Maybe he can get more gold crap to deface more govt property.
Torchlight
(5,695 posts)I don't think expecting blood from a turnip will satisfy the economy nor the carrion administration. So beyond one more headline, I doubt this will make measurable difference to any collective bottom line.
moonshinegnomie
(3,642 posts)id also consider keeping my assetes in something the government cant get ahold if. like bitcoin. say what you want about its long term viability but at least its much tougher for the government to seize.
somsai
(158 posts)In Korea it's $22,000 and 3 years in jail.
China it's only a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars and a week or two in jail.
The police took my into a room and interrogated me complete with an intercom into another room. They were so proud of the technology lol. Typical stupid shit, took my passport, said I was going to jail, I told them go ahead as I had no money. They let me go and told me to get on the next plane or they'd send me to the provincial capital where the jails are worse. I knew they were full of it because after 3 days they have to notify our embassy, which means Beijing, and the very last thing police in Yunnan wanted to talk to are federal police.
I've never heard of a country like the US where you get a hearing and stuff. Normally they just kick you out. Chinese nationals get butt stroked, those old wood stocked AKs good for something eh?