US judge blocks Trump policy of fining migrants

A federal judge on Monday blocked efforts by the Trump administration to impose fines of up to $1.8 million on migrants who fail to leave the US after receiving final deportation orders.



US District Judge George O'Toole in Boston issued the ruling in a class-action lawsuit filed last year by two of the thousands of migrants who have been assessed civil penalties by the Department of Homeland Security.



He said the administration imposed the fines unlawfully.



Halting the penalty-related policies was necessary, O'Toole said, because collecting the fines would likely drive the plaintiffs into insolvency.



DHS had no immediate comment. As recently as July, the department said it had issued more than 103,000 fines to migrants amounting to about $84 billion in total since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year.



Starting last year, Trump's second administration began levying fines of $998 per day for migrants who failed to leave the US after a deportation order.



Those fines have been imposed retroactively for up to five years, for a maximum penalty of $1.8 million.