The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Trump administration have imposed roughly 21,500 fines totaling $6.1 billion on noncitizens who have ignored removal orders. Critics argued that such policies place undue pressure on individuals to leave the country and use misleading incentives that complicate compliance. Meanwhile, DHS and the Treasury Department are actively enforcing the collections while also offering voluntary-departure programs.
DHS rules allow daily fines and limit appeals if noncitizens don’t respond within 15 days. Collections have included tax reporting, private agencies, and refund garnishments.
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A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official stated, “It’s an easy choice: Leave voluntarily and receive a $1,000 check, or stay and wait till you are fined $1,000 a day, arrested, and deported without a possibility to return legally.”
Atta girl, Kristi “Bimbo #2” Noem: Compound their misery by fleecing them and stealing their hard-earned saving!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dhs-announces-6b-in-fines-for-noncitizens/ss-AA1LZgUK
Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego Garcia has learned where the Department of Homeland Security has decided to deport him next.
In an email obtained by Fox News, lawyers for the DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement informed Abrego Garcia’s legal team on Friday that his new intended destination is the tiny African nation of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland.
Ridiculing Abrego Garcia’s legal claim of fear of persecution or torture—a core asylum principle—in many of the nations the government has considered deporting him to, the DHS wrote on social media that “Homie is afraid of the entire western hemisphere”.
The derisory use of the term “homie” sparked outrage on social media.
Abrego Garcia, who is currently in ICE custody in Virginia, became the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in March after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
The government admitted to an “administrative error” following his return from the Central American nation, but is still intent on removing him from the U.S. over charges of human smuggling.
His lawyers claim such charges are a “preposterous and vindictive” punishment for challenging ICE policy.
Eswatini is the fourth potential destination for Abrego Garcia, who was taken into ICE custody for a second time on Aug. 25, and prepared for processing to Uganda.
A federal judge blocked the plan, accepting his lawyers’ concerns over fear of persecution or torture, ruling that it is “absolutely forbidden” to remove Abrego Garcia from the U.S. until further legal processing can be carried out. However, the DHS has stated it is not buying his legal defense.
“That claim of fear is hard to take seriously, especially given that you have claimed (through your attorneys) that you fear persecution or torture in at least 22 different countries,” the legal letter reads.
“Nonetheless, we hereby notify you that your new country of removal is Eswatini, Africa.”
The letter does not elaborate on how the DHS chose the country for Abrego Garcia’s intended removal.
The Daily Beast has contacted the DHS for comment.
DHS boss Kristi Noem has made it a personal mission to see Abrego Garcia deported. She has previously claimed her department is going after “the worst of the worst” and, in August, claimed the man is a “monster.”
“This illegal alien… is a MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator,” Noem wrote on social media.
Abrego Garcia’s legal team has repeatedly denied all these allegations, including the often-trotted out line about his membership of the notorious MS-13 gang. Multiple judges have said there is no evidence to suggest he is gang-affiliated, while noting he has no prior criminal history.
In April, President Donald Trump insisted that Abrego Garcia had the gang name tattooed on his knuckles, challenging a reporter in an interview that an image of Abrego Garcia’s hand with “MS-13″ clearly superimposed over it was real.
At roughly 120 miles long and 80 miles wide, Eswatini is one of the smallest nations in Africa. It is the last absolute monarchy on the continent, and has a population of 1.2 million people. The country, which is bordered by South Africa and Mozambique, changed its name from Swaziland in 2018 to avoid confusion with Switzerland.
Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, says the Trump administration is “weaponizing the immigration system in a manner that is completely unconstitutional.”
The Cato Institute says over 14,500 federal law enforcement officers from other agencies are working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to facilitate raids and make arrests nationwide, including new special agents from USCIS.
The Cato Institute this week reported that ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) is receiving assistance from nearly 17,000 non-ERO agents, according to data given to the nonprofit organization.
That includes diverting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees to help with ICE raids.
The Department of Homeland Security this week announced a new class of USCIS employees had been “newly minted” as special agents to work with ICE.
USCIS personnel will have the authority “to investigate and enforce civil and criminal violations of the immigration laws within the jurisdiction of USCIS. These authorities include, but are not limited to, the issuance and execution of warrants, the arrest of individuals, and carrying of firearms,” according to a notice posted Friday in the Federal Register.
This includes ordering expedited removals. USCIS says it plans to recruit and train special agents for these roles.
“As (Homeland Security) Secretary Noem delegated lawful authorities to expand the agency’s law enforcement capabilities, this rule allows us to fulfill our critical mission. This historic moment will better address immigration crimes, hold those that perpetrate immigration fraud accountable, and act as a force multiplier for DHS and our federal law enforcement partners, including the Joint Terrorism Task Force,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in a statement.
Edlow says this will allow his agency to handle investigations from start to finish, instead of referring some cases to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and ERO agents.
The Cato Institute reports that other federal employees diverted to ICE ERO include:
- ICE HSI: 6,198
- FBI: 2,840
- Drug Enforcement Administration: 2,181
- Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives: 1,778
- U.S. Marshals Service: 650
- Border Patrol: 335
- Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations: 288
- Department of State – Diplomatic Security: 93
- CBP Air and Marine Operations: 68
- Department of Defense: 35
- IRS: 20
- Bureau of Prisons: 11
- U.S. Secret Service: 1
In addition, state and local law enforcement agencies have teamed up with ICE part of the 287(g) program. Cato reports that over 8,500 officers are contributing to ICE operations.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is opposed to arming USCIS personnel to become an arresting arm.
“The Trump Administration has transformed USCIS into an enforcement agency, weaponizing the immigration system against American families, asylum seekers, and businesses. What’s worse, this rule states they now plan to arm potentially hundreds of agents at USCIS,” AILA President Jeff Joseph said.
“Congress established USCIS after 9/11 to process legal immigration applications. Enforcement actions were left to other agencies to ensure that immigrants felt safe submitting their personal information and appearing for interviews. The administration’s continued attacks on those who are following the rules and going through legal channels will only serve to push people further into the shadows. Their aim of driving people out of the country shows a shocking disregard for the value and contributions that immigrants make to America,” Johnson said.
CBS News says that it will no longer edit interviews on its Sunday news show, “Face the Nation”, days after a complaint from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The broadcaster announced Friday it will now only broadcast live or live-to-tape interviews, subject to national security or legal restrictions, on the show.
The decision comes after Secretary Noem claimed that CBS News had “shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth” when she appeared on August 31 to discuss Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant mistakenly deported to El Salvador who has become a high-profile case in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
Noem’s interview with “Face the Nation” was taped in advance. After it was aired, Noem claimed that an important section of the interview had been cut, and posted her full, unedited response on X.
In the full response, she made a series of unproven accusations about Abrego Garcia, alleging that he was a member of gang MS-13, a “wife-beater” and had solicited nude photos from minors. Abrego Garcia has denied the accusations against him.
In response to Noem’s accusations, CBS News said that four minutes of the secretary’s interview had been edited out for timing purposes.
On Friday, the network said it will now only broadcast live or live-to-tape interviews on the show, meaning guests’ statements will not be edited, subject to legal or national security restrictions.
In a statement to The Independent, a CBS News spokesperson said: “In response to audience feedback over the past week, we have implemented a new policy for greater transparency in our interviews.
“Face the Nation will now only broadcast live or live-to-tape interviews (subject to national security or legal restrictions). This extra measure means the television audience will see the full, unedited interview on CBS and we will continue our practice of posting full transcripts and the unedited video online.”
The spokesperson did not comment on whether Noem’s complaint had affected the decision.
Noem’s unedited interview was posted on CBS News’ website and on its YouTube channel.
The broadcaster’s change in editing policy is likely to renew claims that CBS is capitulating to the Trump administration, after settling with the president over his “60 Minutes” lawsuit.
Trump had accused the network of “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference” intended to “mislead the public and attempt to tip the scales” of the 2024 presidential election in favor of former vice president Kamala Harris after it aired different clips of her interview on “60 Minutes” and “Face the Nation.”
Trump repeatedly alleged that Harris’ interview was edited by CBS News at the direction of her campaign, which the network denied.
Ultimately, CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, agreed to pay $16 million to Trump to settle the lawsuit.
The new CBS News editing policy raises the possibility that it would allow guests to spread unchecked falsehoods on “Face the Nation”. However, hosts will still be able to fact-check or challenge claims made by interview subjects, an anonymous CBS News employee told the Associated Press.
A delegation from Argentina, which arrived in the United States for a visa-waiver signing ceremony, was reportedly forced to return home empty-handed after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem failed to inform them that the event had been canceled.
Last week, a group of officials flew from Buenos Aires to Miami, where they were told by the Department of Homeland Security not to continue their trip to Washington, D.C., because the agreement – which would allow American and Argentinian citizens to travel between the two countries for up to 90 days without a visa – was “missing a signature,” a source told Axios.
In the end, the officials, including the head of Argentina’s tax and customs agency, Juan Pazo, spent two days in Miami and then returned home.
“Let’s just say this was not a great look from us,” a senior Trump administration official told Axios, adding that it was “embarrassing.”
The incident appeared preventable. Noem allegedly knew that the Visa Waiver Program signing would not take place because Secretary of State Marco Rubio had not fully approved it yet.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson referred The Independent to a post on X which pushed back on Axios’ reporting.
“As we told them there was no new or additional visa waver program related document pending a signature with Argentina,” the post read. “DHS looks forward to working with Argentinian officials going forward.”
In July, Noem visited Argentina with the intention of starting discussions to help the country reenter the Visa Waiver Program.
Relations between the U.S. and Argentina have warmed since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. Argentinian President Javier Milei has aligned himself with Trump, even calling Trump his “favorite president.”
“Under President Javier Milei’s leadership, Argentina is becoming an even stronger friend to the United States — more committed than ever to border security for both of our nations,” Noem said in July.
However, Noem signed a visa waiver accord with Argentina, indicating the two countries would work toward a more formal agreement, without the Secretary of State’s prior approval, Axios also reported.
That situation reportedly ticked off the Secretary of State. Weeks later, Rubio and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles sent a memo reminding administration officials to “clear the purpose and scope of any proposed call, conversation, meeting or trip with the [National Security Council] prior to engagement.”
The State Department has not been eager to sign a Visa Waiver Program agreement with Argentina because Milei has been battling a corruption scandal. Milei’s sister and close associates have been accused of profiting from a bribery scheme, which Milei has denied.
Rubio’s team reportedly wants to have more discussions with Argentina before striking an official agreement, according to Axios.
It is unclear whether a signature was missing from an agreement.
A Department of Homeland Security official denied that there was a new, or additional, agreement with Argentina pending a signature. “We look forward to working with them going forward,” an official told Axios.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused CBS News of selectively editing footage from her Sunday interview, cutting some of her remarks about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national who was mistakenly deported and returned to the U.S. to face separate charges.
In a statement on Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security said CBS “deceptively” edited the secretary’s answers, cutting about four minutes from the nearly 17-minute interview when it aired on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”
“This morning, I joined CBS to report the facts about Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Noem said in a statement. “Instead, CBS shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth about this MS-13 gang member and the threat he poses to American public safety.”
CBS News, however, maintains that the interview was edited to fit its allotted time slot in the hourlong broadcast and that the full interview was published online.
“Secretary Noem’s ‘Face The Nation’ interview was edited for time and met all CBS News standards,” a spokesperson for CBS News said in a statement to NewsNation partner The Hill. “The entire interview is publicly available on YouTube, and the full transcript was posted early Sunday morning at CBSNews.com.”
Noem’s accusation is the latest example of the administration’s ongoing feud with CBS and its parent company, Paramount.
Earlier this summer, Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit with President Donald Trump over claims the news outlet favorably edited a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the 2024 election.
In Noem’s Sunday interview, sections of her responses cut for the live broadcast include allegations against Abrego Garcia that have not been substantiated and which his lawyers deny.
Those include allegations that the Maryland resident “was a known human smuggler, MS-13 gang member, an individual who was a wife beater, and someone who was so perverted that he solicited nude photos from minors and even his fellow human traffickers told him to knock it off,” which Noem said in the section of the interview that DHS claims was removed from the live broadcast.
The DHS statement includes other sections of the CBS interview that reportedly did not air live on Sunday morning.
Earlier this week, attorneys for Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge to issue a gag order against Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi to bar them from making “baseless public attacks” against their client, who faces human smuggling charges stemming from a traffic stop in 2022.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said in a Thursday motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee that administration officials have targeted their client since he was released from prison, leveling “highly prejudicial, inflammatory and false statements.”
“To safeguard his right to a fair trial, Mr. Abrego respectfully renews his earlier requests that the Court order that all DOJ and DHS officials involved in this case, and all officials in their supervisory chain, including [Bondi and Noem], refrain from making extrajudicial comments that pose a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing this proceeding,” the attorneys said in a 15-page motion to U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw.
A DHS official pushed back against the gag order request.
“If Kilmar Abrego Garcia did not want to be mentioned by the Secretary of Homeland Security, then he should have not entered our country illegally and committed heinous crimes,” a DHS official told The Hill on Friday morning.
“Once again, the media is falling all over themselves to defend this criminal illegal MS-13 gang member who is an alleged human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator,” the DHS official continued. “The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal alien has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story.”
“We hear far too much about gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims,” the official added.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys were told their client could be deported to Uganda, but a federal judge said Monday that the administration is “absolutely forbidden” from removing Abrego Garcia until a hearing is held.
The Department of Defense (DoD) is reportedly encouraging civilian employees to volunteer with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Advocacy groups have voiced concerns regarding the program’s potential effects on immigrant communities. Under the plan, volunteers may serve for up to 180 days, mainly supporting data entry and logistical operations.
A DoD email reads, “Selected Department employees will have a chance to offer critical support to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as they fulfill the President’s intent to ensure a safe and orderly immigration system.”
The USA Jobs listing requires commitment to efficiency and rule of law. Some travel costs may be reimbursed, but no relocation aid is offered, and volunteers must be ready to deploy within 96 hours.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized DoD civilians to aid DHS for up to 120 days. The volunteer roles offer no promotions, may require heavy overtime, and do not need clearances or drug tests.
Hegseth stated, “In support of the President’s priority of securing our borders, I am authorizing the detail of DoD civilian employees to the DHS to support its operations at the United States southern border and with internal immigration enforcement.”
Applications are reportedly open with no set deadline, allowing extensions if needed. A DoD spokesperson stated, “ICE, CBP, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense are embracing President Trump’s whole-of-government approach to protecting the American people.”
The DoD spokesperson added, “DOD civilians — who have already undergone rigorous vetting and demonstrated their commitment to serving this nation — are invited to volunteer for temporary ICE assignments to help make America safe again and remove national security threats—including gang members and terrorists from our country.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/defense-dept-authorizes-temporary-ice-assignments/ss-AA1Ly8hj
