The Trump administration is now making it even harder for illegal immigrants to survive in the country. Amidst their immigrant crackdown, they are planning to have immigrants living in the US pay up to $1.8 million in fines by enforcing the 1996 law. This law penalizes immigrants for each day they stay illegally in the country. Several people, including Wendy Ortiz, will face severe financial consequences due to Donald Trump‘s immigration agenda.
In the case of Ortiz, she has resided in the US for a decade now. Dreaming of a big American life, she earns just $14 an hour at a Pennsylvania meat packing plant. Her rent and living costs barely get covered by her paycheck. Moreover, she has to take care of a 6-year-old son who is a US citizen by birth. He’s a special needs kid with autism.
So her expenses always exceed her salary. Currently, she’s an asylum seeker who’s at risk of deportation back to El Salvador. She left the country in 2015 because it wasn’t safe to live there. There were constant threats from her ex-partner and gang members.
If she is penalized according to the 1996 law, she will be fined $998 per day for living in the US illegally. The maximum fine is capped at $1.8 million after five years. About 4,500 people have been fined this amount, totaling more than $500 million.
Trump is revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants who came here through Biden’s immigration phone app telling them to leave now.
For every day that they don’t self deport, they’ll be fined nearly $1000.
The pets will finally be safe in Springfield. pic.twitter.com/VynSYqhrGM
— David Joe May (@TheGrayRider) April 9, 2025
Earlier, an immigrant mother of 3 was fined 1.8 million dollars from ICE. She had no documentation and was fined $500 for each day she had overstayed. Maria had come to the US 20 years ago from Honduras, and her immigration status wasn’t clear at that time.
Her attorney argued that the situation was not clear when she was sent the notice. Now, her three kids, who are American by birth, may suffer due to her deportation as she does not have any family in the US.
She’s been here illegally since 2005 and in that time she never learned to speak a word of English? The assimilation is going swelllll pic.twitter.com/U2YHRvmolN
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) May 20, 2025
In Trump’s immigrant crackdown, several families have been separated. Illegal immigrants who have kids have been deported while their legal kids, from age ranges born to high schoolers, are left alone in the country.
Trump’s main goal is to deport criminals, but the administration has reportedly been departing people who are not even a threat to the country. Moreover, the number of deportations has also increased through voluntary action and people who ‘self-deport.’
There have been campaign ads for illegal immigrants to leave the country with a payment of $1,000 while also incentivizing them. They have also given a threat to the illegal aliens to leave, or they’ll be found and deported.
