Trump Admin Sues Woman for $941,000 for Failing to Self-Deport

The Trump administration is suing an illegal immigrant to collect close to $1 million in fines for remaining in the country after a deportation order was issued against her. The federal government alleges that Marta Alicia Ramirez Veliz of Chesterfield County, Virginia, failed to leave the United States after an appeals board ruled against her in 2022. The government said that as of April 2025, Veliz owed $941,114 in fines plus interest. Veliz is being sued under a federal law that has been on the books since 1996 that allows civil penalties for illegal immigrants who deliberately fail to leave the country as ordered. In President Donald Trump’s first term, the federal government began assessing fines under the long-unenforced law but did not file lawsuits to collect them. President Joe Biden’s administration stopped assessing fines altogether....