FLORIDA, United States – A Honduran mother of three living in Florida has been blindsided with a staggering $1.82 million federal fine—a punitive measure critics call part of the administration’s escalating crackdown on undocumented immigrants, CBS News has learned exclusively.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued the notice on May 9, calculating the penalty at $500 for each day the 41-year-old woman has remained in the United States since receiving a removal order in April 2005. The total has mushroomed to $1,821,350 over nearly two decades, according to documents obtained by CBS News, which has chosen not to identify the woman.
The case marks a dramatic resurrection of rarely enforced provisions in the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act—provisions the Trump administration announced in February it would begin wielding against those residing illegally in the country.
“ICE is terrorizing individuals without even having to go pick them up,” said Michelle Sanchez, the Florida-based immigration attorney representing the woman. “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 removal order that triggered the massive fine was issued after the woman missed a court hearing in 2005. Earlier this year, Sanchez filed a motion to reopen the case and lift the deportation order, arguing her client qualified for U.S. residency after living here for more than a decade without a criminal record. She also emphasized that deportation would cause “extreme and exceptionally unusual hardships” to the woman’s three U.S. citizen children.
Such requests flourished during the Biden administration, when ICE attorneys were granted discretion to reopen cases and lift removal orders. But hundreds of thousands of these petitions languished unresolved. In March, ICE informed Sanchez they could not reopen her client’s case because the Trump administration had not issued guidance on such prosecutorial discretion.
While Sanchez reports seeing an uptick in ICE fines against her clients who remain in the country illegally, the seven-figure penalty represents uncharted territory. The notice does inform the recipient she can contest the fine, including through a personal interview—an option Sanchez strongly cautions against.
“They’re going into the lion’s den,” she warned, urging anyone receiving such notices to consult immigration counsel before appearing in person to challenge penalties.
Sanchez plans to appeal the fine, arguing her client was never informed about the consequences of failing to leave the U.S. after receiving the removal order.
“I welcome the orderly application of immigration law and I welcome CBP protecting us,” Sanchez said, “but the laws have to be respected and if rights are trampled, there has to be consequences.”
CBS News has reached out to ICE for comment. WiredJA
