A sweeping immigration penalty campaign has helped drive thousands of self-deportations, the Trump administration said Tuesday, as officials finalize rules making it easier and faster to issue fines against immigrants who ignore deportation orders or enter the United States illegally.
According to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Federal Register filing, more than 175,000 immigration penalties have been issued since the administration revamped its enforcement approach in 2025, marking a significant increase over the 12,000 issued in the months before the rule change.
DHS has been urging immigrants without legal status to self-deport, with a stipend that has risen to $3,000 and a government-funded flight to their home country, as well as forgiveness of immigration-related fines. The administration has framed it as safer and easier than facing potential U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.
“While other presidents failed to secure the border and remove criminal illegal aliens, President Trump is using every law available to put Americans first and secure our country," a DHS spokesperson told Newsweek, adding that more than $84 billion in fines had been issued.
“In President Trump’s first year back in office, more than 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations. As of September, we have now deported nearly 1.1 million illegal aliens and arrested over 1.1 million illegal aliens."
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What New Rule Does
The DHS filing Tuesday finalizes a 2025 interim rule that applies to immigrants who fail to leave the U.S. after deportation orders, as well as those caught entering the country illegally.
The policy introduced last year streamlined how DHS imposes fines that Congress authorized years ago, with the Trump administration having argued that the old process was cumbersome and made large-scale enforcement impractical.
Previously, DHS issued a notice of how it intended to fine a person, there was a longer review process and then the penalty could be imposed. Under the 2025 change, DHS can start with a penalty decision, the appeals stay within the department rather than going to the Department of Justice, and the appeals must be filed within 15 days.
For illegal entry, the fine can be between $100 and $500, while voluntary departure violations can reach nearly $10,000, and failure-to-depart penalties can be around $998 per day.
DHS Says Penalties Are Driving Departures
The department said in its filing that the 2025 policy was "working as intended," with a greater number of penalty notices able to be issued.
From March 26, 2025, through June 26, 2025, DHS said it issued 12,135 penalties. After June 27, 2025, when the new rule was implemented, through September 10, 2026, approximately 110,000 failure-to-depart fines were sent, while U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued 66,000 unlawful entry fines.
Before the rule change, DHS said it was issuing around 930 penalties per week, while afterward, the number rose to around 2,800 a week. DHS said that its "robust use of civil penalties" was pushing more immigrants without legal status to self-deport.
"DHS data indicates that over 82,000 aliens with removal orders and voluntary departures orders have self-departed from the United States since DHS began issuing civil penalties in March 2025 through September 14, 2026," the department wrote.
Before the rule was implemented, during the same period DHS outlined previously, 8,600 people had self-deported.
Critics Say Rules Make It Harder to Fight Fines
DHS received feedback on the initial 2025 proposal, including concerns that the rule was ill-intentioned.
The filing stated that "the Departments reject the claim that this rule is intended to dehumanize or punish people navigating the immigration system.
"DHS notes that these penalties generally are not imposed until after the aliens have completed immigration proceedings and received a determination that they are not authorized to remain in the United States," the filing said. "The IFR did not create new categories of violative conduct or expand the scope of existing penalties."
Critics argued in the comments that appeals were now harder to file and the window to challenge penalties is shorter. They also argued that large penalties could devastate families, especially if daily fines rack up to the $1 million stated as a possibility by DHS.
DHS said in its responses that appeals are still available and the process still offers immigrants due process.
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How This Fits Into Trump's Deportation Strategy
Trump has been under pressure from his core base to deliver on a promise of mass deportations, and while ICE has received significant funding boosts and deportations have risen, clear data on removals and departures remains difficult to determine.
DHS says the goal is to present immigrants with a choice: depart voluntarily, potentially with government assistance and forgiven penalties, or remain in the U.S. and face escalating financial and immigration consequences.
Under the Trump administration, CBP made major changes to its app, which had been used to make appointments at the border for new arrivals seeking legal status. Now, it is designed to aid those seeking to leave the U.S. to avoid ICE detention and large fines.
CBP Home allows immigrants to notify the government of their intention to depart, potentially receive financial assistance, then leave on a regular flight to their home country, rather than be deported, before confirming they have arrived through the app.
The government has repeatedly pushed this method of departure, including when asked by the media about those in ICE detention, describing it as "a choice" that could be avoided if a person self-deports.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Samantha Beech and Dave Siminoff.