Low-income migrants fined up to $1.8 million by Trump admin

WASHINGTON: Wendy Ortiz was surprised to find out she was being fined by US immigration authorities for being in the country illegally - but it was the amount that truly shocked her: $1.8 million.

Ortiz, 32, who earns $13 an hour in her job at a meatpacking plant in Pennsylvania, has lived in the US for a decade, after fleeing El Salvador to escape a violent ex-partner and gang threats, she said in an interview and in immigration paperwork. Her salary barely covers rent and expenses for her autistic US-citizen son. "It's not fair," she said. "Where is someone going to find that much money?"

In the last few weeks, US President Trump has started to operationalise a plan to fine migrants who fail to leave the US after a final deportation order, issuing notices to 4,500 migrants with penalties totaling more than $500 million, a senior Trump official said, requesting anonymity. Reuters spoke with eight immigration lawyers around the country who said their clients had been fined from several thousand dollars to just over $1.8 million.

The recipients of the notices were informed that they had 30 days to contest, in writing, under oath, and with evidence as to why the penalty should not be imposed.

The steep fines are part of Trump's aggressive push to get immigrants in the US illegally to leave the country voluntarily, or "self deport." The Trump administration plan, details of which were first reported in April, include levying fines of $998 per day for migrants who failed to leave the US after a deportation order. The administration planned to issue fines retroactively for up to five years. Under that framework, the maximum would be $1.8 million. The govt would then consider seizing the property of immigrants who could not pay. It remains unclear exactly how the Trump administration would collect the fines and seize property.

The fines reviewed by Reuters were issued by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but a separate agency - Customs and Border Protection (CBP) - has been asked to process them and handle potential forfeitures, Reuters reported in April. The US department of homeland security did not respond to a request for comment.