{"id":41277,"date":"2025-05-21T12:58:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T16:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/?p=41277"},"modified":"2025-05-21T12:58:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T16:58:41","slug":"south-florida-woman-facing-1-8-million-ice-fine-speaks-out-please-have-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/south-florida-woman-facing-1-8-million-ice-fine-speaks-out-please-have-mercy\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida woman facing $1.8 million ICE fine speaks out: &#8220;Please have mercy&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" data-trx-lazyload-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B-4-hFbU9PA?si=ha5z0nlxld5WGLBM\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A South Florida woman who has lived in the U.S. for two decades is now facing a staggering $1.82 million fine from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for failing to leave the country after receiving a removal order in 2005, according to the federal agency.<\/p>\n<p>The woman, a 41-year-old mother of three U.S. citizens, asked CBS News Miami to be identified only as &#8220;Maria&#8221; out of fear for her safety.<\/p>\n<p>Originally from Honduras, Maria said she lives with anxiety every day and struggles to sleep after receiving the notice from ICE&#8217;s civil fines department.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ever since that day I live with anxiety\u2026 I can&#8217;t sleep\u2026 I don&#8217;t feel,&#8221; she said in an interview with CBS News Miami. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to go back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Maria entered the U.S. through California in February 2005. Two months later, after failing to appear at a scheduled immigration hearing, she was ordered to leave the country.<br \/>\nAccording to a notice sent May 9, ICE is now charging her $500 for every day she has remained in the U.S. since that order, totaling $1,821,350.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I told the immigration officer I didn&#8217;t have any family in this country or a specific place to stay,&#8221; Maria said. &#8220;I never received any document and they did not know where I was going to be.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The fine was issued under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which permits the government to impose daily penalties on undocumented individuals who ignore removal orders.<\/p>\n<p>Maria&#8217;s attorney, Michelle Sanchez, said the fine is excessive and unfair, given that her client was not properly informed of the consequences.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For me that is absolutely nuts!&#8221; Sanchez said. She filed a motion in 2024 to reopen Maria&#8217;s case, arguing that her client qualifies for U.S. residency due to her long-term residence and lack of a criminal record.<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez also pointed to Maria&#8217;s three children \u2014 all U.S. citizens \u2014 who would suffer &#8220;extreme and exceptionally unusual hardships&#8221; if their mother were deported.<\/p>\n<p>While ICE attorneys were granted discretion under the Biden administration to reopen certain deportation cases, Sanchez said her client&#8217;s case was denied in March of this year because the Trump administration did not offer guidance on such decisions. Two months later, Maria received the fine.<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez said she plans to appeal, arguing Maria was never made aware of the legal consequences of failing to depart the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Maria, meanwhile, said she is not interested in returning to Honduras.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It would be extremely painful to be separated from my children, this is their country, this is all they know,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Please have mercy I want to stay with them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>CBS News and CBS News Miami reached out to ICE for comment. A spokesperson for ICE South Florida said they will need more time to respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A South Florida woman who has lived in the U.S. for two decades is now facing a staggering $1.82 million fine from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for failing to leave the country after receiving a removal order in 2005, according to the federal agency. The woman, a 41-year-old mother of three U.S. citizens,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[251,614,446,817,89],"class_list":["post-41277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wls-news","tag-251","tag-florida","tag-ice","tag-mother","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mother.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41279,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41277\/revisions\/41279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/worldlatinstar.com\/wls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}