A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Here's one tool the Trump administration is using to pressure undocumented immigrants to leave the country themselves, civil fines of up to $1.8 million per person. From member station WUNC, here's Aaron Sanchez-Guerra.
AARON SANCHEZ-GUERRA, BYLINE: In the city of Gastonia, near Charlotte, several tenants were recently evicted from an aging apartment complex. Tito Sabillon was hired to do what he does best, remodel the apartments.
TITO SABILLON: (Speaking Spanish).
SANCHEZ-GUERRA: With paint-stained hands and jeans, this is how Sabillon has made his American dream happen, ever since he migrated from Honduras more than a decade ago. But this dream is in jeopardy. This summer, Sabillon got a letter saying he owes the Department of Homeland Security more than $1 million. Sabillon is undocumented. And the government says he, quote, "willfully failed to leave the U.S. after receiving a removal order in 2023 under the Biden administration."
SABILLON: I have a family. That's the only that really matters that I have over here, you know?
SANCHEZ-GUERRA: Paying the fine is out of the question, and so is leaving his U.S. citizen wife, his stepson, his business and the southern state he now calls home.
SABILLON: I don't have a reason to get back in Honduras anyway. In my country, everything can be dangerous some places where I live, you know? And I think, like, you can do well in this country if you can have a way to do good, you know?
SANCHEZ-GUERRA: Sabillon says he had no clue about a removal order, and the notice of the fines was the first time he heard about this. Lawyers have told him his best option is to try to gain legal status through his spouse. DHS says in a statement that by mid-July, it had issued more than 100,000 civil fines, totaling more than $84 billion. DHS says those fines include up to $1,000 for each day that a person hasn't self-deported since receiving a removal order. Sabillon's family, like his father-in-law, Ricky Robinson, has come to his defense.
RICKY ROBINSON: Where's he going to get $1 million, out of his back pocket? That's a scare tactic.
SANCHEZ-GUERRA: Robinson voted for Trump in the 2024 election. He says he regrets his decision now.
ROBINSON: He said that he was going to get the criminal aliens. If you're - just 'cause you came across the border, and you've done nothing but start your business, start a family and haven't committed any crimes, no, he never said anything about going after people like that.
SANCHEZ-GUERRA: Immigration policy swings with each administration. But Congress set up the conditions of a flawed system, says Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council.
AARON REICHLIN-MELNICK: The last time Congress made any changes to our immigration enforcement system was 1996.
SANCHEZ-GUERRA: That law blocks people from returning to the U.S. for up to 10 years if they had unlawful presence. But it also kept a lot of migrants from leaving the U.S. when, historically, they would move back and forth, says Reichlin-Melnick.
REICHLIN-MELNICK: Twenty-five, 30 years later, we are seeing the problems of a system where no one can fix their papers until Congress actually gets its act together and changes the law.
SANCHEZ-GUERRA: Today's government says these immigrants have willfully failed to self-deport. But many have stayed while trying to get legal status, says Hasan Shafiqullah with The Legal Aid Society of New York.
HASAN SHAFIQULLAH: If I'm on a pathway to get a green card through my U.S. citizen spouse - self-petition, green card, whatever, there's so many different ways that people get status in this country - why should I self-deport?
SANCHEZ-GUERRA: The Legal Aid Society of New York is part of a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration to challenge these fines. While a decision is pending, people like Sabillon hope a judge will put a temporary pause on these fines.
For NPR News, I'm Aaron Sanchez-Guerra in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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