A federal judge in Boston on Monday blocked the Trump administration’s effort to fine migrants up to $1.8 million for failing to leave the country after final deportation orders, Reuters reported.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole ruled in a class-action lawsuit filed last year by two of the thousands of migrants assessed civil penalties by the Department of Homeland Security.
He held that the fines were imposed unlawfully and violated the Administrative Procedure Act because the forms used lacked specific allegations explaining why an individual’s conduct warranted a penalty.
O’Toole, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, wrote that the plaintiffs were in a precarious economic position even without what he called the government’s “exorbitant fines,” and that collecting them would likely drive the plaintiffs into insolvency.
He also found the administration skipped required rulemaking steps when it adopted a streamlined process in July 2025 that eliminated a 30-day notice period, because the public got no chance to comment first.
The fines run $998 a day and have been applied retroactively for up to five years. DHS said in July it had issued more than 103,000 fines totaling about $84 billion since Trump returned to office. Congress authorized the penalties in a 1996 law.
DHS had no immediate comment, Reuters reported.
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