The Donald Trump administration's immigration policy has once again come under scrutiny following the release of a report from the NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic, which documents the imposition of $84 billion in civil fines against more than 103,000 immigrants in just over a year.

The report, titled 'Debt and the Deportation Agenda: Immigration Ends Under the Second Trump Administration', maintains that economic sanctions not only reach people with deportation orders, but also those who have some type of legal protection or maintain open processes to regularize their immigration status.

Fines impossible to pay

The investigation, based on surveys of sanctioned people and their lawyers, concludes that the majority of those affected are workers with insufficient income to cover the amounts required.

According to the report, 71% of immigrants with deportation orders already have or are seeking to obtain legal immigration status. In cases of voluntary departure, the figure rises to 82%.

The report, titled 'Debt and the Deportation Agenda: Immigration Ends Under the Second Trump Administration', maintains that economic sanctions not only reach people with deportation orders, but also those who have some type of legal protection or maintain open processes to regularize their immigration status in the United States.

Fines impossible to pay

The investigation, based on surveys of sanctioned people and their lawyers, concludes that the majority of those affected are workers with insufficient income to cover the amounts required.

According to the report, 71% of immigrants with deportation orders already have or are seeking to obtain legal immigration status. In cases of voluntary departure, the figure rises to 82%.

"The magnitude of the immigration fine program of the second Trump administration is unimaginable. But behind each of these fines is a person or a family mired in a crisis," said Ajay Singh, one of the authors of the report.

Researchers also found that more than half of the families surveyed live below the federal poverty line, although most work and pay taxes.

They warn of a strategy to promote deportations

The report argues that the program represents an unprecedented expansion of the powers of ICE and CBP, which can now use wage garnishments, property liens, withholding of tax refunds and private collection agencies to recover fines.

In addition, immigrant advocacy organizations question that the government has reduced due process guarantees to challenge these sanctions.

“The Trump administration is instrumentalizing the civil penalty program, ignoring even due process to inflict the maximum possible damage,” said Hasan Shafiqullah, supervising immigration attorney at The Legal Aid Society.

For his part, Charles Moore, lawyer for Public Justice, stated that the study shows the economic and human damage caused by a policy that, in his opinion, punishes even people who try to regularize their stay in the country.

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