President Donald Trump announced on Friday, May 9, a new executive order that would pave the way for confiscating wages, cars, and other properties from immigrants who remain illegally in the United States and have not opted for self-deportation. When asked about the issue, Florida immigration attorney Willy Allen clarified that if there is no deportation order, "it is very difficult for you to be fined for not leaving."
Although it is still not very clear how it will work, in practice, these are fines for undocumented individuals who do not voluntarily participate in President Trump's "Return Home Project," "the first self-deportation program in U.S. history," which rewards illegal immigrants with $1,000 to return to their home country.
In any case, Willy Allen recalled that fines for staying illegally in the United States have existed since 1996 and are set at $500 per day. However, this has been a rarely used measure by the Administration until now, as penalties are beginning to be seen ranging from $3,000 to a million dollars. It is still unclear how the collection process will be handled, although it is thought that garnishing wages and seizing properties would be used to cover the amount of the fine.
The problem, which already exists, could worsen because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intends to raise the penalties outlined in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) to $998 per day.
"It is not known how it will be implemented, but under the law from 1996, if you have a final order of deportation and do not leave the United States, you could face a fine of up to 500 dollars a day. In reality, very few people have been fined. Now, the new Secretary of Homeland Security, who is the one imposing the fine, says that the fine will be 998 dollars," the lawyer insisted.
This fine can be "challenged in court," as have other executive orders from Trump, but "the Secretary of Homeland Security said that if people don't leave, they could have their accounts seized and their homes might be at risk. So what you have on your side could be in jeopardy. A Venezuelan man came to see me because he was fined $3,000 for not departing voluntarily, and in a lawyer chat, I saw a fine of $1.8 million. That's real money. What happens? The fines are real, and they can be imposed."
The question is how they will collect them. "The devil is in the details. The biggest problem for the people who are here now, especially those who have final deportation orders and have not left, are the fines," said the expert on immigration issues.
"Now the executive action that wants to impose fines in general on people who do not leave and do not have legal status can be challenged, since anyone without a deportation order can always contest something in front of immigration judges. However, it is necessary to know to what extent they can fight and to what extent they can win," concluded Willy Allen.
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