DHS cobra 5,130 dólares a inmigrantes en citas rutinarias, según demanda

Key facts

On Sept. 1, 2026, Public Justice, The Legal Aid Society and the firm Brown Goldstein & Levy filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland challenging how the Department of Homeland Security is imposing a $5,130 fee on immigrants.

The fee comes from 8 U.S.C. section 1815, created by the budget law known as H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The statute sets a $5,000 charge, now $5,130 after an inflation adjustment. By its own terms, it applies to a noncitizen at the time they are apprehended between ports of entry.

The complaint says DHS has ignored both limits. According to the lawsuit, the agency adopted what the plaintiffs call a Fine Everyone Policy: charging the fee retroactively to people who entered the United States before the statute existed, on July 4, 2025, and charging it long after entry, including at routine immigration check-ins hundreds of miles from any border.

The suit says people who are lawfully present are receiving these bills. That includes people with pending immigration cases and people living in the country with ICE's permission under orders of supervision. The plaintiffs argue the policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act and ask the court to vacate it and stop DHS from continuing to impose the fees.

Context

A $5,130 bill is not a small administrative matter for the households that receive one. For many families it is more than a month of income, and it arrives on top of filing fees, attorney costs and, increasingly, bond.

The mechanism matters as much as the amount. A check-in is supposed to be the safe, cooperative option. It is what people with pending cases and supervision orders are told to do. Attaching a five-figure charge to that appointment turns compliance into a financial penalty, and it gives people a reason to skip an appointment they should keep. Missing a check-in carries its own severe consequences.

This is also part of a wider pattern this newspaper has tracked: rising fees across the system, including proposed citizenship fee increases and a proposed six-figure charge on H-1B petitions. Money has become an enforcement tool.

What this means

If you have received a notice assessing a $5,130 fee, you are not alone and the legality of that charge is now being contested in federal court. A lawsuit does not cancel a bill, and nothing is decided yet.

If the case succeeds, the policy could be vacated and fees potentially refunded, but that outcome is months away at the earliest.

What to do next

Do not skip an immigration check-in because of a fee notice. Missing a required appearance can lead to arrest and to a removal order.

Keep every document you receive, including the envelope and any payment demand. Photograph it. Those records establish when and where the fee was assessed, which is exactly what this lawsuit is about.

Show the notice to a licensed immigration attorney or a nonprofit accredited representative before you pay anything. Ask specifically whether you entered before July 4, 2025, and whether you were assessed the fee at a check-in rather than at an apprehension between ports of entry. Those two facts are at the center of the case.

Be careful with anyone who offers to make the fee disappear for a payment. Only a lawyer or accredited representative should advise you.

Diario Migrante resume y analiza la cobertura de Public Justice; los datos y las citas son de la nota original.