Immigration and Customs Enforcement has dropped fines against hundreds of illegal immigrants living in the U.S., The Daily Caller reports.
ICE has sent fines amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars to immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally and have ignored multiple orders to leave the country. One fine, against Edith Espinal Moreno of Ohio and formerly of Mexico, amounted to almost $500,000 last June. However, ICE sent her another letter in October notifying her that the fine had been dropped.
“Following consideration of matters you forwarded for ICE review, and in the exercise of the its discretion under applicable regulations, ICE hereby withdraws the Notice of Intention to Fine,” ICE officer Lisa Hoechst wrote in the letter.
Espinal told NPR that she came to the U.S. with her father when she was 16 and has spent her entire life in the United States. She has three children, two of whom are U.S. citizens, and has been living for the last two years in a sanctuary at an Ohio church.
ICE told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the decision to drop the fines could be reversed in the future.
“These individuals are subject to final orders of removal and they remain in the United States in violation of law. ICE will pursue enforcement of these removal orders using any and all available means, and has reserved the right to reassess fines in these cases,” ICE spokesman Richard Rocha said on Wednesday.
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