A federal judge in Boston on Monday blocked the Trump administration's practice of fining migrants up to $1.8 million for staying in the U.S. after a final deportation order.

U.S. District Judge George O'Toole ruled in a class-action lawsuit brought last year by two migrants who had been fined, along with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. He said the administration imposed the fines unlawfully. He also said collecting them would likely drive the plaintiffs into insolvency.

"The plaintiffs live in an economically precarious position even without the imposition of the government's exorbitant fines," O'Toole wrote.

The scale is large. As of July, the Department of Homeland Security said it had issued more than 103,000 fines totaling about $84 billion since Trump returned to the White House. The fines run $998 for each day a person fails to leave. They have been applied going back as far as five years, which is how they can reach $1.8 million.

Congress allowed these penalties in a 1996 immigration law. But no administration used them until Trump's first term, Reuters reports.

The judge took aim at how the fines were handed out. In July 2025, the Homeland Security and Justice departments dropped a 30-day notice period and shortened the time to challenge a fine. The plaintiffs said Immigration and Customs Enforcement used boilerplate forms and did not check whether each person's failure to leave was "willful." O'Toole, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, agreed. He found the forms lacked specific reasons for each penalty, which violates the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that sets rules for how agencies act. He also found the new process skipped the required public notice and comment.

Homeland Security did not immediately comment. The administration can appeal to a higher court.

What we know: A judge has blocked the fines and the fast-track process used to issue them.
What we don't: Whether the government appeals, and what happens to fines already paid.