Latest news with #deportación
CBS News
20 hours ago
- General
- CBS News
As news of immigration court arrests spread, some migrants weigh self-deporting
As the Trump administration continues to adopt new tactics to reform the U.S. immigration system, conditions have grown increasingly inhospitable for migrants in the country illegally, even those in court proceedings to earn legal status. It's led some asylum-seekers to reconsider whether they want to continue with their court cases or voluntarily leave. A young Venezuelan mother attending a check-in at Dallas' immigration court Monday said her fear right now is that she'll be deported, and her five-year-old son will be left to fend for himself. "El juez dijo que mi próxima cita en la corte es el primero de octubre de 2025 y que vendré sola. Si ese día me ordenan deportarme, ¿dónde quedará mi hijo, en manos de quién?" "The judge said my next court date is the first of October 2025, and to come by myself," she said in Spanish. "If that day I'm ordered deported, where will my son stay, in whose hands?" As she walked into the courtroom on Monday, the woman was stopped by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in plainclothes. He was there as part of an operation to detain two other migrants that morning, not her. But the experience still left her nervous and validated her growing fear that coming to this country the way she did wasn't worth it. ""Es mejor no venir. Todos esperamos tener mejor suerte, pero no todos podemos venir. Es demasiado complicado". "It's better not to come," she said. "We all hope for better luck, but we can't all come. It's too complicated." When her court date arrives in four months, she said she plans to have already self-deported. The new tactic: Immigration court arrests Two weeks ago, the Trump administration began carrying out its latest tactic aimed at fast-tracking deportations and clearing the immigration court backlog. Under the direction of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE attorneys are now dropping cases against some migrants who have arrived in the U.S. in the past two years, removing their temporary protected status, and making them immediately eligible for arrest and deportation. The migrants are then arrested as they leave their hearings and detained for expedited removal from the U.S. ICE agents in plainclothes arrest a migrant at the Dallas federal courthouse moments after an immigration judge dropped his asylum case. CBS News Texas While expedited removals are nothing new, some legal experts said this way of carrying them out is. "This is really unprecedented that you have this coordination between the immigration court, between the ICE attorneys, between ERO to dismiss these cases for the purpose of putting people in expedited removal procedures and removing them quickly," said immigration attorney Paul Hunker, who formerly served as chief counsel for ICE in Dallas." Expedited removal has historically been applied to migrants caught near the border, not long after entering the country. But in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order expanding its scope. "Constitutionally, it's premised on a procedure for an arriving alien, somebody who just got here and doesn't have ties," Hunker said. "The longer someone's been here, the more ties they have to the country, the better argument they have that the expedited procedure doesn't give them their due process." Hunker said if he had been asked in his former role if expedited removal should be expanded in this way, he would have said the big problem with this tactic is it applies expedited removal to people that it really wasn't meant to be applied to. He said "I would say it's a bad idea because there's a significant risk courts are going to say that's illegal to do," Hunker said. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stated this move is an attempt to reverse the former administration's so-called "catch-and-release" policy that it says allowed "millions of unvetted illegal aliens to be let loose on American streets." In an emailed statement, a senior DHS spokesperson emailed CBS News Texas: "Most aliens who illegally entered the United States within the past two years are subject to expedited removals. Biden ignored this legal fact and chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals, into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been." The statement goes on to say that migrants with valid, credible fear claims will be allowed to continue immigration proceedings. But as news spreads of these courthouse arrests, immigrant advocates say more migrants will choose to skip their court check-ins, leading to them receiving automatic removal orders. "Which might be part of why the Trump administration is doing this," Hunker said. "Because once a person has a removal order, it's much easier for ICE to pick them up and remove them."
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Undocumented Honduran mother hit with astonishing punishment after being in US illegally for 20 years
An undocumented Honduran mother living in South Florida says she was hit with a staggering $1.82 million fine from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for failing to leave the country for two decades. The 41-year-old mother-of-three, identified only as Maria, has lived in the US since 2005. Her original asylum case was denied, and she has been under a deportation order since 2020. Maria said she was blindsided when she received a letter from ICE last month stating she owed $1,821,350 in civil penalties. 'They're charging me because I've been in this country illegally since 2005,' she told Telemundo 51 in Spanish. 'I have no way to pay for it. I was never notified about a fine and never received documents warning this was coming.' 'Ever since that day I live with anxiety. I can't sleep… I don't feel,' she added to CBS News Miami. 'I don't want to go back. It would be extremely painful to be separated from my children. This is their country, this is all they know. Please have mercy. I want to stay with them.' Mariasaid she fled Honduras after her brother was killed by members of the violent MS-13 gang, and has since worked as a cleaner and caregiver while raising three American-born children. According to her attorney, Michelle Sanchez, Maria never knew she had a deportation order in 2005, and the fine appears to stem from an obscure clause in the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act allowing ICE to issue $500-per-day fines to undocumented immigrants with final removal orders. 'She never knew she had a deportation order,' Sanchez told NBC 6 South Florida. 'She is seeking aggressively to fight this in court.' 'ICE is terrorizing individuals without even having to go pick them up,' Sanchez added to CBS News. 'They are terrorizing them by sending these notices where they are fining individuals an exorbitant amount of money that a person sometimes doesn't even make that amount in their lifetime.' 'She is a hard-working taxpayer. She has no arrest anywhere in the world,' Sanchez added. The attorney filed a motion to reopen Maria's case, citing her long-term residence, her American-born children, and her clean legal history - but ICE denied the request. The agency has not yet confirmed the legitimacy of the fine notice in response to media inquiries. 'This is all very scary and very concerning for a lot of people,' Sanchez said. 'This administration has stated there will be mass deportations, and they're not playing around. They're putting their plans in place.' Maria's case has drawn attention as President Donald Trump ramps up deportation efforts during his second term, reviving and expanding hardline policies from his first presidency. During a four-day operation in late April, ICE, in coordination with Florida law enforcement, arrested 780 undocumented migrants, highlighting the administration's aggressive approach to deportations and removals. The administration's new initiative, Project Homecoming, offers undocumented immigrants $1,000 and a free flight to self-deport - a program officials say will save money and streamline removals. The first flight carrying 64 migrants left earlier this month. 'This is about restoring order,' Trump said at a rally this month in Phoenix. 'If you're here illegally, it's time to go home - and we'll even pay for it.' Those who refuse to leave may face wage garnishment, property seizures, and permanent reentry bans, according to the Financial Times. In addition, Trump has proposed hiring 20,000 new ICE officers, tripling the size of the agency in what he calls the largest deportation operation in American history. The Supreme Court just allowed the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,000 Venezuelans, even as legal battles continue - a move immigrant advocates warn could send lawful residents back into dangerous conditions.
Washington Post
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Rights groups sue to free Venezuelans deported from the US and held in El Salvador
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — International human rights organizations on Friday filed a lawsuit with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asking that the commission order El Salvador's government to release Venezuelans deported from the United States and held in a maximum-security prison . In March, the U.S. government deported more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants alleged to have ties to the Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador, paying the Salvadoran government to imprison them.
