What has happened in past administrations to illegal aliens who ignore deportation orders? Not much, actually. The federal government has only fitfully attempted to enforce such orders, and mostly ignores them to the same extent the recipients do. That’s one of the reasons that many laughed at Mitt Romney’s suggestion in 2012 that he could rely on “self-deportation” to reduce the number of illegal aliens in the US.
Donald Trump clearly has other ideas. Since taking office, the Department of Homeland Security has begun issuing civil penalties of nearly $1000 a day for those ignoring legitimate judicial deportation orders. Now they plan to either collect that money — with fines into millions of dollars for some — or hand out $1000 to each in exchange for self-deportation.
The Wall Street Journal has a not-so-admiring report on this new strategy:
The Trump administration has issued $6.1 billion in fines to immigrants it says have ignored deportation orders. Now it is moving to collect those penalties.
In recent weeks, the government has threatened immigrants with lawsuits, debt collectors and ruinous tax bills if they don’t pay financial penalties. If the recipient self-deports, Homeland Security says the fine will be waived and they will receive a $1,000 “exit bonus.”
Since President Trump’s return to office, the Department of Homeland Security has issued 21,500 fines to persuade people in the backlogged immigration court system to leave the U.S. The penalties come as the department struggles to fulfill Trump’s promise for the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history.
Hey, no one is above the law, right? Defying court orders for deportation violates the law. Civil penalties do apply to that refusal. If the US has not enforced that law in the past, well, it’s enforcing it now.
Needless to say, it’s not a popular strategy for those in the system:
“It’s driving immigrants to the point where they feel like they will lose everything if they remain in the United States, so it’s better to cut their losses, pack up and self-deport,” said immigration attorney LaToya McBean Pompy. “It’s psychological warfare.”
Ahem. It’s not “psychological warfare.” It’s law enforcement. If one does not like the law, then one can petition Congress to change it, although it seems like a stretch to think that Congress would allow people to ignore judicial orders without any penalties or consequences whatsoever.
That’s clearly what the people who defy such orders expect, however:
A restaurant worker in Brooklyn who was ordered by a judge to leave the U.S. in 1998 received the $1.8 million fine in June, his attorney, Edward Cuccia, said.
“You’re going to give someone a $2 million fine who works a minimum-wage job?,” Cuccia said. “Clearly they’re not expecting to collect the money, they’re just scaring people.”
Double ahem. Cuccia’s client has defied a deportation order for twenty-seven years. What did he expect to happen? They may not expect to collect the money, but those were the risks that Cuccia’s client ran by refusing to comply with the deportation order. The effort to collect may be “scaring” him, but the client is finally facing the consequences of his own choices.
And yes, DHS won’t collect much of this $6.1 billion in fines, if they collect a dime of it. That’s not what they want, either. They want people with deportation orders to leave the country as ordered by judges, and are willing to keep it civil and offer some resources if they finally comply. The US has admitted millions of immigrants into the country legally while Cuccia’s client has refused to comply, and we will continue to do so after Cuccia’s client hits the road, too. If people want to migrate to the US, they have legal methods to do so, which is the respectful and lawful approach in a country where “no one is above the law.”
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left’s lies, new legislation wasn’t needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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