Migrants who were temporarily allowed to live in the United States by using a Biden-era online appointment app have been told to leave the country ‘immediately.’
More than 900,000 people were allowed in the country using the CBP One app since January 2023.
They were generally allowed to remain in the United States for two years with authorization to work under a presidential authority called parole.
Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security said: ‘Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security.’
Authorities confirmed termination notices were sent to CBP One beneficiaries but did not say how many.
They were urged to voluntary self-deport using the same app they entered on, which has been renamed CBP Home.
It came down with an announcement that those who are in the U.S. illegally and refuse to leave will be charged $998 per day until they go, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced.
“If they don’t [leave], they will face the consequences,” a DHS spokesperson said.
“This includes a fine of $998 per day for every day that the illegal alien overstayed their final deportation order.”
Officials are planning to roll out the fines under a rarely used 1996 law that allows fines to be imposed on those avoiding removal orders.
The law was first enforced in 2018 under the Republican’s first term.
However, Joe Biden’s administration suspended the rule in 2021, saying the penalties were “ineffective and unnecessary punitive measures.”
One senior Trump administration official said the fines will be retroactive up to five years, dating back to 2019, which could result in penalties totaling over $1 million in some circumstances.
It was unclear how many beneficiaries would be affected.
“It’s time for you to abandon the United States,” the Department of Homeland Security wrote to a Honduran family that entered the U.S. at the end of last year.
Others shared the same email on social media platforms.
Al Otro Lado, a nonprofit organization that provides legal aid to migrants, said some who received the revocation letters are from Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico.
CBP One was a cornerstone of the Biden administration’s strategy to create and expand legal pathways to enter the United States in an attempt to discourage illegal border crossings.
By the end of December, 936,500 people had been allowed to enter with CBP One appointments at border crossings with Mexico.
President Donald Trump ended CBP One for new entrants on his first day in office, stranding thousands in Mexico who had appointments into early February.
Trump has ended and revoked temporary status for many who benefited under Biden’s policies.
Homeland Security said Monday that Biden’s use of parole authority — more than any president since it was created in 1952 — ‘further fueled the worst border crisis in U.S. history.”
The fines reportedly would only apply to the 1.6 million migrants in the U.S. facing deportation orders.
The administration also has plans to seize the property of those who refuse to cough up the cash for the fines, according to White House emails reviewed.
U.S. officials on those emails discussed how the Department of Justice’s civil asset forfeiture division could be used to help with seizing the migrant’s assets.
DHS previously warned in a social media post on March 31 that fines were being considered for migrants found not in compliance with their deportation orders.
During Trump’s first administration Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued fines ranging from $300,000 to $500,000 to migrants who refused to depart the U.S. by taking refuge in churches.
In 2019, Edith Espinal Moreno, a migrant from Mexico, was ordered to pay $497,000 for ‘failing to depart the U.S. as previously agreed.’
Moreno had overstayed her deportation order by two years and took refuge at an Ohio church during that time.
Eventually, ICE dismissed the fine.
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