Unaccompanied immigrant teenagers are being slapped with $5,000 fines from the federal government as a way to pressure them to return to their home countries, according to reporting Friday at The Intercept.
"The fine is one of several new financial penalties for immigrants created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Donald Trump signed in July," the report stated. "The federal government is issuing the fines under a section of the law titled 'Inadmissible alien apprehension fee,' which is set at $5,000 and can be applied to people apprehended between official ports of entry. Homeland Security’s application of the fine hasn’t been previously reported." Advocates for the teenagers criticized DHS.
“It’s really about creating fear,” attorney Ana Raquel Devereaux said. “There’s no way that a child in this situation would be able to pay this, and the penalties are so severe.”
That fear is stoked by notices demanding full payment and listing "an array of potential consequences for failure to pay, including collection litigation and negative impacts on their immigration cases. Fines that aren’t paid in full will accrue interest, the notices say," according to The Intercept.
"They’re trying to pressure and coerce these young people into taking voluntary departure,” Shah said. “These are the stressors you’re putting very young kids under," said Meena Shah, managing director of the Legal Services Center at The Door, a New York City-based nonprofit that serves young people. Shah said roughly 10 teenagers in New York, ages 14 to 17, received the fine in mid-October.
The Intercept added: "Other fees created by the new law include $100 to apply for asylum, plus $100 every year the application is pending; $550 for asylum-seekers to apply for a work permit; and $5,000 for anyone ordered removed in absentia and then arrested by ICE. Lack of clarity over exactly how and when to pay the $100 fees recently sparked panic among asylum-seekers in New York and a flood of misinformation and potential scams, New York Focus recently reported."