Former President Donald Trump's administration intends to intensify its policy of repression of immigration with a controversial measure: imposing daily fines of up to $998 on migrants who remain in the United States even after receiving formal deportation orders. According to the Reuters report, if the amounts are not paid, the plan also provides for the possibility of seizing the assets of these immigrants, an action that reignites the debate on the legal and humanitarian limits of migration policies.

The details are contained in internal documents reviewed by Reuters. The measure is based on a 1996 law, rarely used, but which was first applied in 2018, during Trump's first term. According to a senior official in the former president's team, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the new proposal provides for retroactivity of up to five years — which could lead to accumulated fines exceeding $1 million in some cases.

In addition to fines, the government is considering seizing assets from defaulters, an initiative that involves liaising with agencies such as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Justice, which could trigger its civil asset forfeiture division. The affected migrants are mostly part of the contingent of approximately 1.4 million people who have already been subject to final deportation orders by immigration judges.

In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that these individuals must use the CBP Home app — formerly known as CBP One — to arrange for their voluntary departure from the country. "If they don't, they will face the consequences," she said, emphasizing the fine of nearly $1,000 per day of wrongful stay.

The plan is being coordinated from the White House, according to internal cables obtained by the agency. One of the central figures in pushing for its implementation would be Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser and one of the main architects of the Trump administration's tougher immigration measures.

There is still no official date for the start of the collection of fines, according to Reuters, but the proposal already raises concerns among lawyers, activists and even public officials. A CBP memo dated April 1 points out that the agency does not currently have the proper systems in place to process this type of sanction and warns of high costs and the need to hire hundreds of legal experts to implement the plan.

Among critics, the fear is that the sanctions will disproportionately hit low-income families and households made up of U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants — the so-called “mixed-status families”. Estimates from the FWD.us group indicate that about 10 million undocumented immigrants currently live in shared homes with citizens or permanent residents, which could make the effects of the measure even broader and more controversial.

For Scott Shuchart, a former senior adviser to the immigration agency ICE during the Biden administration, the proposal seems to have less to do with effective law enforcement and more to do with the use of fear as a deterrent tool. "The real goal is to send an intimidating message to immigrant communities," he said.

The Biden administration, upon taking office in 2021, suspended the issuance of these fines and revoked related policies. Now, with Trump's return to the White House, the resumption of penalties suggests an electoral strategy centered once again on a promise to combat large-scale immigration — even if that means financially penalizing those who have been living for years under pending deportation orders.