An undocumented immigrant living in Florida faces a more than $1.82 million fine for failing to leave the country after receiving a removal order 20 years ago, CBS News has learned.
According to a notice sent May 9 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s civil fines department and provided to CBS News, the 41-year-old Florida woman and mother of three, whom CBS News has chosen not to name, was charged $500 for each day she remained in the United States since the removal order was issued in April 2005, for a total of $1,821,350.
CBS News has contacted ICE for comment.
According to Michelle Sanchez, the Honduran immigrant’s immigration attorney in Florida, this case is an enforcement of the civil fines outlined in the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which also requires undocumented immigrants to register with the US government.
In February, the Trump administration announced plans to penalize those living in the United States illegally under the immigration act. It encompasses a variety of regulations, but has been rarely enforced since its inception.
According to Sanchez, the removal order was issued after the woman failed to appear at a court hearing in 2005.
Sanchez filed a motion in 2024 to reopen her client’s case and lift the removal order, arguing that the Honduran woman was eligible for U.S. residency because she had lived in the country for more than ten years and had no criminal history.
Sanchez stated that her client is also the mother of three US citizen children who would qualify as relatives if she were deported because they would face extreme and exceptionally unusual hardships.
Under the Biden administration, ICE attorneys were given the authority to reopen cases and lift removal orders. According to Sanchez, hundreds of thousands of these requests remained pending. In March, ICE informed the Florida immigration lawyer that they could not reopen her client’s case because the Trump administration had not provided guidance on prosecutorial discretion.
Sanchez told CBS News that she has seen an increase in ICE fines for her clients who remain in the country illegally, but the million-dollar civil fine is a first.
“ICE is terrorizing individuals without even having to go pick them up,” Sanchez informed me. “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.”
The notice sent to the Florida mother of three states that the fine can be contested and that a personal interview is an option.
“They’re going into the lion’s den,” Sanchez said, adding that anyone who receives such a notice should first contact their immigration lawyer before appearing in person to contest the fine.
Sanchez indicates that she will appeal her client’s fine because the Hounduran mother was never informed of the consequences of failing to leave the United States after the removal order was issued.
“I welcome the orderly application of immigration law and I welcome CBP protecting us,” says Sanchez, “but the laws have to be respected and if rights are trampled, there has to be consequences.”