Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has introduced a new piece of legislation that would increase civil fines on illegal aliens who come into the country or attempt to enter the United States unlawfully or fail to leave once they have been ordered removed, while also raising penalties for employers who knowingly hire unauthorized individuals to work for them.
The Florida Republican’s bill, the “Illegal Immigrant Cost Recovery Act,” is cosponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT). The bill would amend current federal immigration law to increase the civil penalties attached to three categories explained in the text of the legislation: Aliens who try to “enter or attempt to enter the United States without authorization”; aliens “subject to a final order of removal who fail or refuse to depart from the United States”; employers that “knowingly hire aliens who are not authorized to work in the United States.”
The current range for civil penalties applied to those who enter the nation illegally ranges from $50 to $250. The bill would increase that range to $200 to $1,000. It would also increase the civil penalty for failure to depart from $500 to $1,996. The penalty for employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens would increase for a first offense from a range of $250 to $2,000 to a new range of $1,432 to $11,448.
According to a report from Breitbart News, “For a second offense, the penalty range would rise from $2,000 to $5,000 to $11,448 to $28,616. For subsequent offenses, the penalty range would increase from $3,000 to $10,000 to $17,172 to $57,238.” The legislation also requires annual inflation adjustments for the new penalties starting on October 1, 2027.
The Secretary of Homeland Security would then be required by law to publish the updated amounts in the Federal Register by December 15 every year, with adjusted amounts applying to penalties assessed on or after January 1 of the following year. Scott told Breitbart that, “Illegal immigration is — in fact — illegal and has consequences.”
“President Trump is working hard to restore law and order, and we in Congress need 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,” the senator continued.
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 added. Sen. Mike Lee, a cosponsor of the legislation, told the outlet, “Americans are footing the bill for illegal immigrants who use public services, benefits, and schools intended for citizens.”
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“Law has long required financial penalties for illegal immigrants, but no president other than Donald Trump has stood up for the American people by enforcing them. I’m proud to cosponsor Senator Rick Scott’s Illegal Immigration Cost Recovery Act to double civil financial penalties for illegal immigrants and claw back Americans’ hard-earned money,” the Utah Republican said.