In a rather striking turn of events, a 41-year-old undocumented immigrant residing in Florida has been slapped with an astonishing $1.82 million penalty after evading deportation for a staggering 20 years. This hefty fine, which amounts to $500 per day over 3,643 days, comes after she ignored a formal removal order issued in 2005.
The individual in question, a Honduran national and mother of three U.S.-born children, has become a focal point in the ongoing debate surrounding immigration enforcement. Charged under the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act—a piece of legislation that seems to have languished in obscurity until now—she finds herself in a precarious legal situation.
On May 9, ICE decided to revive this long-dormant statute, issuing a notice of the fine. According to CBS News, the monumental fine is a direct result of her failure to attend a court hearing back in 2005.
Since that time, she has continued to live unlawfully in Florida, managing to sidestep deportation efforts. Now, she argues that her removal would impose “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” on her children, who are U.S. citizens.
Her attorney, Michelle Sanchez, an outspoken advocate for immigrant rights, criticized the fine as a form of psychological intimidation: “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.”
As elaborated by CBS News:
This case exemplifies the enforcement of civil penalties under the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which mandates that undocumented immigrants register with the U.S. government, as explained by Sanchez.
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Sanchez further noted that the removal order was issued following the woman’s absence from a court hearing back in 2005.
In 2024, Sanchez filed a motion seeking to reopen her client’s case to have the removal order lifted, arguing that her client had lived in the U.S. for over a decade without any criminal record, making her eligible for residency.
She emphasized that the woman’s children, as U.S. citizens, would face extreme hardship should their mother be deported.
Under the Biden administration, ICE had given its attorneys the latitude to reopen cases and lift removal orders, but Sanchez noted that many requests remain unresolved. In March, ICE informed her office that they could not revisit her client’s case because the Trump administration failed to provide guidance on such prosecutorial discretion.
Interestingly, the Trump Administration previously indicated it would utilize a 1996 law allowing fines of $998 per day for undocumented immigrants refusing to leave the country—a law that saw its first enforcement in 2018 during Trump’s presidency. This approach suggests a retroactive application of penalties that could yield fines exceeding $1 million, including the potential for property seizures for noncompliance.
