Wendy Ortiz was surprised to find out she was being fined by U.S. 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 United States 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 6-year-old U.S.-citizen son.

The Trump administration plan, details of which were first reported by Reuters in April, include levying fines of $998 per day for migrants who failed to leave the U.S. after a deportation order.

The administration planned to issue fines retroactively for up to five years, Reuters reported. Under that framework, the maximum would be $1.8 million. The government 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.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250522115629/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/4500-migrants-told-pay-fines-ranging-18-million-rcna207958

    • Eximius@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      A fun fact is, nobody (including complicit Germans) knew how evil the concentration camps and the actions of the Nazi party were, until the allies actually won…

      You might very well be very past that point, just whimsically unaware.