A Southern California woman who has spent 13 years trying to secure legal permanent residency says the Department of Homeland Security hit her with a jaw-dropping $1.82 million fine for living in the US undocumented — despite her years-long effort to do things “the right way.”
Fearing for her safety, the woman asked NBC7 to remain anonymous. She described the moment she opened the letter on Friday as utterly terrifying.
“It was a shock,” she said. “When I started reading and I see the amount – $1,820,000—it was kind of insane.”
The woman said she came to the US from Mexico decades ago when she was about 13. A judge issued a voluntary departure order in 2003 requiring her to leave, but she had no idea it existed until immigration agents tracked her down in 2013.
“Since then, I’ve been fighting my case,” she said. “I’ve been fighting for this too many years to do the right thing.”
Her immigration attorney, William Menard, said the woman has no criminal history, no public safety issues, and has spent years complying with immigration authorities while applying for a green card through her US citizen father and three adult children.
Menard told the network his client’s case has been stuck in limbo for years, tangled in red tape as each required waiver gets lost in the sluggish immigration system.
“A pending green card application does not give someone legal status to be in our country,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday. “The Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”
“Our message is clear: Illegal aliens in the country illegally should leave now or face consequences,” it read.
The Trump administration has levied billions in fines against illegal migrants who have refused deportation orders.
Immigrants have been fined at least $6.1 billion since President Trump took office, with some people facing millions in fines for staying in the US years after they were ordered to leave.
Menard argued his client’s original 2003 voluntary departure order capped fines at $5,000 and said DHS later granted her permission to stay while her case crawls through the overloaded legal system.
“She’s not hiding. The government is fully aware of who she is and where she is and what she’s doing,” Menard said. “She’s been doing this for years, and they all of a sudden decided to issue the fine now.”
Working as a house cleaner, she said, paying such an enormous fine is out of reach.
“They know that these people can’t pay close to $2 million in fines. It’s not going to happen,” Menard added.
Meanwhile, in Seattle, another individual is locked in a similar struggle. He also received a nearly $2 million bill from the Department of Homeland Security, according to KCBD.
The federal agency said it was a civil penalty for failing to leave the United States after receiving a deportation order.
Immigration attorney Olia Catala told the outlet: “My client came to the U.S. in the early 80s, fleeing the Vietnam War. They came as refugees from Vietnam, and they settled in the United States,” Catala said.
“So he was only 5 years old when he came, and he’s in his late 40s now.”
