An aging apartment complex where evicted tenants left empty units behind is a typical jobsite for Tito Sabillón.
That’s because landlords in the Charlotte metro area consistently hire Sabillón to do what he does best: professionally remodel the apartments before they’re listed for rent again.
Paint-stained hands and jeans and a trusty work van in tow, Sabillón has made his American dream happen this way ever since he migrated from Honduras 13 years ago.
But this dream is in jeopardy after he received a letter in July from the Department of Homeland Security saying he owes more than $1 million in civil fines.
"I’m in limbo," said Sabillón, who learned to speak English when he migrated to the U.S. in his twenties.
It’s not because Sabillón doesn’t pay taxes or has unpaid debts.
Sabillón is undocumented, and the Trump administration is deploying this tool to pressure immigrants without status across the country like him to self-deport.
If they don’t pay, immigrants may risk arrest, or having their assets and tax refunds seized.
For Sabillón, paying the fine amount is out of the question, and so is leaving his U.S. citizen wife, his stepson, his business and this Southern state he now calls home.
"I (don't) have many options," he told WUNC News in an interview. "Eventually they’re probably going to come to my home and try arresting me, or God knows what could happen."
Self-deporting would mean losing an actual chance to gain legal status, too. Sabillón is currently petitioning for legal residence through his marriage.
So far, a lawyer assisting his case has told him it’s his best hope for the future, other than waiting until legislators can check the Trump Administration’s power after the November midterm elections.
"I have a family, that’s really only what really matters to me," said Sabillón. "I don’t have a reason to get back to Honduras anyway. In my country it can be dangerous in some places where I live. And I think you can do well in this country if you have a way to do good, you know."
Lawyers he contacted for help wouldn’t take up his case, he said. The 15-day deadline to appeal the fine passed already, and doesn’t include an option for an extension.
U.S. government fining immigrants
In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told WUNC News it has issued more than 103,000 civil fines totaling more than $84 billion as of July 16.
The government has collected $1.2 million of those fines, the spokesperson said.
It’s unclear how many of those are in North Carolina. One immigrant man in Fayetteville told WUNC News he’d also received such a fine, but declined to be interviewed.
The government is charging undocumented immigrants $998 per each day that they have remained in the U.S. following a deportation order from a judge. In many cases, however, these removal orders were filed in absentia, without a person present in court, according to The Legal Aid Society.
Sabillón said he never received notification of an 2023 removal order that is cited by DHS in the letter he received, which was reviewed by WUNC.
"Where’s he gonna get a million dollars? Out of his back pocket?" said Sabillón’s father-in-law, Ricky Robinson, a Cary native. "That’s a scare tactic."
Robinson voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, a decision he says he regrets now.
"He said he was gonna get the criminal aliens who have committed crimes," said Robinson. "Just cause you came across the border and you’ve done nothing but start your business, start a family, haven’t committed any crimes … he never said anything about going after people like that, no."
Robinson said he’s dismayed that the Trump Administration is going after hard-working people with families, like his son-in-law.
"Thirteen years he’s been here building a business," said Robinson. "People like Tito, who are here just to work, to provide, and then start a family, want to learn English, and then be treated this way, I don’t think is right. That part I am against, in this immigration (policy)."
Federal lawsuit against immigration fines
The Legal Aid Society joined with other legal aid firms like the NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic in a class action lawsuit to sue the Trump Administration in federal court last November to challenge these fines, which they argue are unlawful.
Letters to immigrants like Sabillón accuse them of having "willfully failed or refused to depart" from the U.S. after a removal order.
Hasan Shafiqullah, supervising attorney at The Legal Aid Society of New York, said actually proving that is difficult because most undocumented immigrants have remained in the U.S. while pursuing some form of legal status.
"They have to establish willfulness," said Shafiqullah. "They have to make some investigations into my particular circumstances to see, 'Am I willfully failing to depart?' In most cases, the answer is no, I’m here for some reason."
DHS has ramped up this effort following a new policy enacted last year under the second Trump Administration.
Immigrants no longer have to be served these fines personally or by certified mail as before in the first Trump Administration, and now have only 15 days to appeal the fine with no possibility of extension, as opposed to 30 days, with an additional 30 days to respond, according to Shafiqullah.
Immigrants were fined in limited numbers during the first Trump Administration, NPR reported.
"If I'm on a pathway to get a green card through my U.S. citizen spouse, if I'm on a pathway to get a Violence Against Women Act self petition, a green card, whatever, there's so many different ways that people get status in this country, why should I self-deport?" Shafiqullah said.
A decision is pending in the federal lawsuit, which could result in a judge putting a temporary pause on these fines.
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