Rosa has made two specific requests to her husband in case she’s deported to Guatemala: that he send over her pots and pans, and that he save money for her funeral expenses. “I would go there to die,” says the undocumented woman who has been fighting since January to recover from a stroke that nearly took her life. The Trump administration has her in its sights: a few days ago she received by mail a notice fining her $1.8 million for failing, since 2013, to comply with an order to leave the country voluntarily. It is not an isolated case: more than 65,000 immigrants have received letters imposing unaffordable penalties that together total $36 billion. Organizations and experts have called the measure unconstitutional, extraordinarily cruel and a form of psychological torture.
“I spend my time crying, I feel very sad, I think I won’t make it there in Guatemala because I can’t be without my medicine and I can’t work because I get too tired just walking,” laments Rosa, who spoke to EL PAÍS on condition of anonymity using an assumed name. She lives with her husband in a small apartment in Los Angeles and takes a daily cocktail of medications for diabetes, high blood pressure and the aftereffects of the stroke that sent her to emergency surgery. The million-dollar penalty sent to her by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the end of March has weakened her even more, says the 50-year-old. “When they come to drop off my medicine, I think they’re from ICE; I don’t want to open the door, I don’t want to go outside.”
Rosa’s exact debt to the U.S. government is $1,820,352, an amount her husband — the family’s sole breadwinner — would take almost 38 years to pay if he devoted his entire monthly salary of $4,000 to it. He works as an attendant at a gas station and half of his income vanishes on rent. He is also undocumented. “I don’t even have money to send my things to go back to my country,” Rosa exclaims in a weakened voice. DHS, however, has set a deadline of just 15 days to pay. The only alternative it offers to cancel the fine is to leave the country as soon as possible.
‘They don’t have money to cover an amount like that’
The fines are part of a controversial strategy by the Trump administration to curb migration beyond deportations. On the same day he began his second term, the Republican signed an executive order authorizing DHS to collect these penalties. During his first term (2017–2021), Trump had tried to implement the initiative, based on an immigration law enacted in 1996, but did not succeed. The Joe Biden administration later reviewed the measure and concluded the sanctions were excessively punitive and ineffective.
DHS’s strategy is to impose fines of up to $1,000 for each day an immigrant remains in the U.S. after receiving an order to leave voluntarily. The penalty is capped at five years. That is why many people owe the same figure: $1.8 million. However, the government warns the debt can continue to grow because of “interest, administrative costs and penalties for past-due amounts.”
Since the spring of 2025, DHS began sending letters notifying people of these financial penalties. But it is unclear whether the measure has produced the intended results. The agency did not respond to questions sent by this outlet about how much money it has collected or how it did so. It also did not disclose how many migrants may have chosen to return to their countries to solve the problem. “Our message is clear: foreigners who are unlawfully in the country must leave now or face the consequences,” DHS said in a brief statement.
Migrant advocacy organizations say the Trump administration has seized wages from people with these debts. Other measures mentioned in the DHS letters, they warn, include referring debts to private collection agencies; reporting them to financial institutions, which could harm credit histories; or referring cases to the Department of Justice to initiate litigation. The letters also warn that noncompliance will be taken into account when denying future regularization processes.
“The government can try to take money from paychecks, place a lien (a claim that turns an asset into security for payment) on a house, or perhaps on bank accounts,” explains Raquel Kuronen, an immigration attorney. “It’s part of the Trump administration’s strategy, which seeks to pressure immigrants through different avenues.”
Kuronen’s law office represents about 70 immigrants who have received these fines from Los Angeles, roughly 40% of its clientele. None has paid a cent. “They don’t have money to cover an amount like that,” the lawyer says.
Experts recommend that migrants seek legal advice as soon as possible and respond to DHS notices before the 15-day deadline expires by filing a formal objection to the fine.
Felipe’s torture
Felipe, a 47-year-old Mexican living in southern California, also carries a $1.8 million debt around. The migrant, who earns a living as a construction laborer, has considered putting his vehicles in his children’s names and withdrawing the little money he has in the bank, anticipating more aggressive government action. He received the DHS letter on May 7 and since then has lost his peace of mind. “It changed my life. I wouldn’t want to ruin my children’s lives,” he says amid sobs in a phone interview. “If my children had already finished their studies and could support themselves, I would step back, without having to endure this torture. But my mission is not over yet.”
When Felipe opened the letter sent by DHS and saw the amount, he thought it might be a code related to his old asylum case. “I looked more closely and I said: no, this is a fine. I thought it would never reach me.”
He ended up in this situation because in 2001, a year after emigrating from Guadalajara, Mexico, a notary public promised to fix his papers but never explained that the strategy was to file an asylum application — something that at the time was rarely granted to Mexicans. Later he received a work permit and a Social Security number. Everything seemed to be going well until an immigration court hearing in which a judge told him his case had no grounds. “Do we deport you or will you leave voluntarily?” the magistrate asked. Felipe chose the latter option, believing it would be enough to hide from immigration authorities. But the fine has made it clear the authorities know exactly where he is.
“I go around with my heart in my mouth. Every time I leave my house I cross myself and say, ‘May God do as He wills.’ I look everywhere. I have encountered ICE agents, but they have not detained me,” Felipe says.
Rosa, the woman from Guatemala, ended up on ICE’s radar for similar reasons. Newly arrived in Los Angeles in the 1990s as a teenager, she was taken to a legal office to open an asylum case. She paid thousands of dollars but left the process unfinished for lack of funds. Even so, she managed to obtain a work permit that allowed her to work in factories and maquiladoras. In 2013 she tried to reopen the case, but that did not succeed either. “They never told me I had a deportation order. I only found out when the fine letter arrived,” she says.
‘A debt burden that will ruin them’
Lawyers defending migrants with these debts are building their cases on three arguments: proving their clients were not a public charge, that they never knew fines could escalate over the years to reach millions of dollars, and that there were pressing circumstances that prevented them from returning to their countries. “We want to prove it wasn’t deliberate, that perhaps they never received the court notice when a deportation order was issued in absentia. Maybe they were sick, incarcerated, had a sick relative, something happened,” Kuronen explains.
At the end of 2025, civil organizations filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of two fined migrants identified as María L. and Nancy M., residents of Massachusetts and Florida. The complaint names DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and former Trump administration officials such as Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem.
According to the lawsuit, federal agencies are imposing these civil penalties without assessing whether they are appropriate in each individual case, for example by reviewing why the person did not return to their country, and they are doing so without taking the cases to a jury. “If left unchallenged, these fines will plunge María L., Nancy M. and thousands of people… into a debt that will ruin them, in violation of the Constitution” and the Immigration and Nationality Act, it says. The aim of the suit, which remains pending in a federal court in Massachusetts, is to obtain an injunction to halt the collection of the fines.
“With this administration, anything can happen, and that’s when you realize the goal is not to solve problems but to harass and intimidate immigrants to force them to self-deport,” said Jorge Mario Cabrera, spokesperson for the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). “It’s not fair, because our people are hardworking and will never be able to pay these fines.”
Rosa, the Guatemalan migrant, says she has gone to law firms and the office of an immigrant-rights organization in Los Angeles to review her case. All of them have recommended that she return to Guatemala, warning that if she does not go, the government “will sue her to collect that money.” She asked one lawyer whether moving would be a good idea to get off ICE’s radar. The litigator’s answer froze her: “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”
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