Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced legislation Thursday that would raise civil fines on illegal aliens who enter or attempt to enter the United States unlawfully or fail to leave after being ordered removed, while also increasing penalties for employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers.
Scott’s bill, titled the “Illegal Immigration Cost Recovery Act,” is being cosponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT).
The legislation would amend federal immigration law to increase civil financial penalties for three categories covered in the bill text: 1) aliens who “enter or attempt to enter the United States without authorization”; 2) aliens “subject to a final order of removal who fail or refuse to depart from the United States”; and 3) employers that “knowingly hire aliens who are not authorized to work in the United States.”
The bill says that civil penalties for improper entry would rise from the current range of $50 to $250 to a new range of $200 to $1,000. The bill would also raise the civil penalty for failure to depart from $500 to $1,996.
The measure would also increase employer penalties for knowingly hiring unauthorized aliens. For a first offense, the bill would raise the penalty range from $250 to $2,000 to a new range of $1,432 to $11,448. For a second offense, the penalty range would rise from $2,000 to $5,000 to $11,448 to $28,616. For subsequent offenses, the penalty range would increase from $3,000 to $10,000 to $17,172 to $57,238.
The bill would require annual inflation adjustments for the revised civil penalties beginning October 1, 2027, using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. The Secretary of Homeland Security would be required to publish the updated amounts in the Federal Register by December 15 each year, with the adjusted amounts applying to penalties assessed on or after January 1 of the following year.
Scott exclusively told Breitbart News, “Illegal immigration is — in fact — illegal and has consequences. President Trump is working hard to restore law and order, and we in Congress need to do our part to help. 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. 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.”
Lee said in a statement to Breitbart News, “Americans are footing the bill for illegal immigrants who use public services, benefits, and schools intended for citizens. Law has long required financial penalties for illegal immigrants, but no president other than Donald Trump has stood up for the American people by enforcing them. I’m proud to cosponsor Senator Rick Scott’s Illegal Immigration Cost Recovery Act to double civil financial penalties for illegal immigrants and claw back Americans’ hard-earned money.”
Sheehy stated to Breitbart News: “Illegal immigration has real costs, and Montana taxpayers shouldn’t be stuck footing the bill. This bill strengthens accountability, supports immigration enforcement, and helps ensure the illegal immigrants who break our laws – not American families – bear the consequences.”
A press release provided to Breitbart News described the proposal as “a fiscal measure to transition immigration enforcement toward a self-funding model.” The release said the bill would increase “non-tax revenue collection” and reduce “the reliance on taxpayer dollars” by putting the cost burden of immigration enforcement on violators.
The press release also said the fines were “rarely enforced by DHS prior to President Trump’s first term in office” and were “paused completely under the Biden administration.” It added that ICE resumed issuing failure-to-depart fines on June 13, 2025, and that nearly 10,000 fine notices have been issued since then.
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