By Araceli Martinez
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES — At the end of May a letter arrived in the mail for Ángel, who has called Los Angeles home for more than two decades. The letter, from the Department of Homeland Security, informed him that he was being fined $1.8 million for failing to comply with a deportation order.
Ángel (not using his real name because he is undocumented), says the days and weeks since the letter arrived have been filled with anguish.
“I was frozen when I got the letter,” he said. “I couldn’t eat. My appetite left. I felt cornered.” He added, “I began wondering over and over again what was going to happen to me. I don’t have money to pay that amount. What will happen to my family if they deport me?”
Recent reporting by the Marshall Project shows the federal government has sent out more than 65,000 such letters to immigrants across the country who, like Ángel, have outstanding deportation orders. In Ángel’s case, the $1.8 million is based on a $998 per-day fine with a five-year statutory minimum.
In administering the fines — which amount to some $36 billion in total — the Trump administration has revived a rarely used 1996 law that allows for financial penalties for immigrants who fail to comply with court issued orders.
Ángel is 47 and has worked in construction since he first came to Los Angeles from Mexico. With a lump in his throat, the husband and father of three — ages 21, 18 and 12, all U. S. citizens — takes long pauses during the interview. Between sobs, he says his problems began when he visited a local notario in 2001 shortly after arriving in the country.
“He promised me a work permit, a Social Security number, and then residency,” Ángel recounted. “I had only been in the country for a year at the time, and in my ignorance, I foolishly believed him.”
Public Counsel, a nonprofit public interest law firm dedicated to advancing civil rights and racial and economic justice, defines notarios as people who advertise to the immigrant community that they can help with immigration issues and other matters of law, even though they have no legal training and are not authorized to perform those services.
In Mexico and other parts of Latin America, notarios are state-appointed attorneys with broad legal authority, which is not the case here in the U.S. That confusion has led to legal and financial pitfalls as well as numerous scams targeting unsuspecting immigrants.
In Ángel’s case, it was three years later, in 2004, when an immigration judge denied his asylum petition and handed down a deportation order, that he understood his mistake.
“I wasn’t the only one, there were hundreds,” explained Ángel, who paid the notario $4,000 for his “services.” According to Ángel, the notario never explained that he would be filing an asylum petition on his behalf.
Approval rates in asylum cases for Mexican nationals has historically hovered at below 10%.
The judge in the case told Ángel he could choose to self-deport or have agents come to his home.
“I responded that I would leave on my own account,” he said.
Instead, he remained in the country, motivated by the need to support his parents in Mexico. A year later, in 2005 he got married and started his own family.
“I have a very good job. I pay my taxes. My wife has always volunteered in our children’s schools,” Ángel said. “I have never had problems with the police; I have perfect credit…”
Two weeks after receiving the first Department of Homeland Security letter, Ángel received a second notifying him that his debt would be sent to a collection agency.
“Since then, I’ve visited many lawyers trying to find a solution, but nothing can be done,” he said. “One lawyer wanted to charge me $5,000 to file an appeal; another $8,000 to file for bankruptcy, but that option isn’t available, because bankruptcy isn’t an option when you owe the government.”
He eventually made the decision to cancel his bank accounts, moving his savings and his vehicles under his children’s names to prevent them from being seized.
“They have also told me that they can garnish up to 25% of my salary, and that would affect me because I am the only provider in the family.”
Ángel says he expects the Trump administration to send him another letter with a court summons, and that ultimately, a judge will determine his fate.
“If my children had already finished their studies, I would feel more at ease returning to Mexico,” he said. “My daughter wants to study to be a teacher, and my oldest son dreams of becoming a drone engineer. Deporting me would mean shattering their dreams.”
Alex Gálvez is an immigration attorney working in Los Angeles. He said the first thing immigrants who receive these letters should do is beware of scams by lawyers who offer to appeal the fine for more than a million dollars.
“There is nothing to appeal; and we are seeing lawyers who are charging up to $4,500 to file an appeal that is not going to stop the fine or cancel the deportation,” Galvez said.. “What they should do is protect their assets, especially those who own homes, and create a trust to prevent their property from being seized or confiscated.”
He added he has seen cases of immigrants who received these letters only to have agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement show up at their door shortly after.
“What happened is that ICE detained them as they left their homes,” he said. “I’ve seen it.”
Juan José Gutiérrez, director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, said these fines serve two purposes; the first is to continue terrorizing the immigrant community.
“All that’s left is for them to take away what little savings they have,” he said.
The second, he said, is to get people to self-deport, fulfilling the government’s campaign pledge of mass deportation.
“The goal is to emotionally break undocumented immigrants so that, filled with panic, they leave,” Gutierrez said.
For his part, Ángel, devastated and with no way to fix his immigration status, says his greatest wish is to connect with other immigrants who have received the fines.
“So far, I haven’t been able to contact anyone. Talking to someone who is living through the same nightmare as me would help me a lot.”
Araceli Martinez writes for American Community Media. This story was produced as part of “Aquí Estamos/Here We Stand,” a collaborative reporting project of American Community Media and community news outlets statewide.
