U.S. Sen. Rick Scott has introduced the Illegal Immigration Cost Recovery Act, a bill to double civil financial penalties for illegal aliens who enter, or attempt to enter, the United States.
While these penalties were signed into law nearly 40 years ago, President Trump is the first—and only—president to enforce monetary consequences for illegally entering the country and failure to depart, Scott sai.d U.S. Senators Mike Lee and Tim Sheehy cosponsored this legislation.
Specifically, the Illegal Immigration Cost Recovery Act increases penalties for those who:
- Enter or attempt to enter the United States unlawfully.
- Have a final order of removal who fail or refuse to depart from the United States.
This legislation would also increase financial penalties to employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens not authorized to work in the United States.
“Illegal immigration is — in fact — illegal and has consequences. President Trump is working hard to restore law and order, and we in Congress needs to do our part to help. Decades of open border policies have created an enormous and unfair cost burden on Americans that needs to be offset to make things right; meanwhile, those that entered our country illegally should face consequences for their actions. This commonsense bill enforces the law and ensures illegal aliens can’t keep ripping off our country and undermining the hardworking Americans who pay taxes and follow the rules,” Scott said.
Doubling civil penalties is a fiscal measure to transition immigration enforcement toward a self-funding model. By increasing non-tax revenue collection, this legislation reduces the reliance on taxpayer dollars and puts the cost burden of immigration enforcement on the violators themselves, he added.
These fines will generate revenue that will cover operational costs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.