US Pursues Deportees Abroad for $423 Million in Unpaid Fines
Alicia A. Caldwell and Maya Averbuch, Bloomberg Law, September 8, 2026
The Trump administration is hiring private contractors to track down deported migrants who it claims owe the US government hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid penalties, a move that will test how far its immigration crackdown can reach across borders.
US Customs and Border Protection says it is trying to recover about $423 million in fines and fees from more than 66,300 people who have been removed from the US. Last month, the agency agreed to pay as much as $36 million to four firms to find people in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala it claims are in arrears, according to a notice posted on a government procurement website.
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{snip} In past cases, the US has threatened that unpaid fines could affect future immigration cases.
The contractors may photograph homes or obtain utility bills, employment records or court papers to locate deportees and establish their ability to pay, according to the contract documents.
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The amount CBP is trying to collect represents only a small portion of the larger pool of penalties imposed by the US Department of Homeland Security. From Trump’s return to office on Jan. 20, 2025, through July 16, 2026, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, DHS’s enforcement arm, issued more than 103,000 civil fines totaling more than $84 billion, according to DHS. By July 16, the government had collected just $1.2 million.
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The fines are based in part on a provision of a 1996 immigration law that allows the government to impose daily penalties on certain people who refuse to leave after being ordered deported.
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Trump has now revived the penalties on a far broader scale. Some immigrants can be fined nearly $1,000 for every day they remain in the country after being ordered to leave. Charges can accumulate into the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars.
