The Legal Aid Society, Public Justice, and Brown Goldstein & Levy LLP have filed a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s policy of unlawfully imposing $5,130 fees on noncitizens.

The Trump Administration has continually tried to harass and intimidate noncitizens by using financial penalties, and this ‘fine everyone policy’ is more of the same. These fees are unlawfully assessed long after individuals enter the country, including during routine immigration check-ins far from the border.

“The ‘Fine Everyone Policy’ is another example of the Trump Administration’s brazen lawlessness,” said Hasan Shafiqullah, Supervising Attorney in the Civil Law Reform Unit at Legal Aid. “These fines cannot be assessed retroactively or in the interior of the country, yet DHS ignores appeals and sustains fines that are clearly unlawful.”