A 41-year-old illegal alien living in Florida has been hit with a jaw-dropping $1.82 million fine after refusing to leave the United States for two full decades, despite receiving a formal removal order in 2005. Yes, $500 per day for 3,643 days.
The illegal alien, originally from Honduras and now a mother of three U.S.-born children, was charged under the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act — a law that has remained largely dormant for years, even as millions cross the border illegally.
ICE finally dusted off the rulebook and took action, sending a notice of the fine on May 9.
According to CBS News, the massive fine stems from the alien’s failure to appear in court back in 2005.
Since then, she has lived illegally in Florida, avoided deportation, and now claims that removal would cause “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to her children.
Her attorney, Michelle Sanchez, a vocal immigration activist, blasted the move as “terrorizing” and accused ICE of psychological warfare: “ICE is terrorizing individuals without even having to go pick them up… They are terrorizing them by sending these notices where they are fining individuals an exorbitant amount of money that a person sometimes doesn’t even make that amount in their lifetime.”
More from CBS News:
This case represents an enforcement of the civil fines listed under the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which also requires undocumented immigrants to register with the U.S. government, according to Michelle Sanchez, the Florida-based immigration attorney representing the Honduran immigrant.
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According to Sanchez, the removal order was issued after the woman failed to show up to a court hearing in 2005.
In 2024, Sanchez filed a motion to reopen her client’s case and have the removal order lifted, arguing the Honduran woman was eligible to apply for U.S. residency because she had resided in the U.S. for more than 10 years with no criminal record.
Sanchez said her client is also a mother of three U.S. citizen children who would be qualifying relatives as they would suffer extreme and exceptionally unusual hardships if she were deported.
Under the Biden administration, ICE attorneys were given discretion to reopen cases to lift removal orders. Hundreds of thousands of these requests were left pending, however, according to Sanchez. In March, ICE notified the Florida immigration lawyer they could not reopen her client’s case because the Trump administration did not offer guidance on such prosecutorial discretion.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that the Trump Administration announced it would be invoking a 1996 law that allows it to fine illegal immigrants $998 per day for refusing to leave America. The law was enforced for the first time in 2018, during President Trump’s first term in office.
The Trump Administration plans to apply the penalties retroactively for up to five years, possibly resulting in fines of over $1 million.
Illegals also face property seizure for refusal to comply.
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