Indivisible 845,
the Immigration Committee
Por / By Robert Fuchs, Esq.
Be Prepared
to Challenge Penalty Assessments
a
Indivisible 845,
the Immigration Committee
t’s important to be forewarned about the Administration’s latest act of cruelty. Now as you pick up your daily mail, you could find a letter from the government assessing an enormous penalty which could be anywhere from several thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The recent policy is loosely based on laws passed by Congress in 1952 and 1996, that were never enforced until Trump’s first term.
The 1952 law imposed a fine when there was reason to believe that a person had violated any of the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) and the 1996 law permitted the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to order payment of a civil penalty of up to $500 per day (now $988 after adjustment for inflation) for each day that a person willfully failed or refused to depart from the U.S. after an order of removal. These laws are subject to a 5-year statute of limitations.
In 2017, President Trump issued an Executive Order (“EO”) to ensure the assessment and collection of all fines and penalties from noncitizens unlawfully present in the US. During his first administration, Trump issued 233 notices of which 26 individuals were ultimately fined for a total of $4,215. The Biden Administration rescinded the EO. On his first day back in office, President Trump issued a new EO reinstating the collection of penalties.