Learning Lab

Building Public Power to Fight ICE's Civil Penalties

Only available as part of a package

This spring, thousands of people opened their mailboxes to find a notice that they are being fined upwards of $1.8 million by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for failing to leave the country after a final order of removal. The first Trump Administration targeted only a handful of individuals for these fines (CCR, 2020), but this time around the Administration is attempting to a??scalea?? its operations. They have already issued more than 10,000 fines totaling almost $3 Billion in just six months. In June, DHS and DOJ announced a new regulation a??streamlininga?? the civil fines process and making it even more difficult for people to respond to these fines (DHS, 2025a; DHS, 2025b). A group of immigrants rights organizations and advocacy groups have convened to meet the urgent and growing need for information about this rarely-used part of the law and develop guidance about how people can push back against these fines. The experiences of impacted people and the attorneys who are representing them have been essential in shaping our strategy and approach to this effort. This session offers a roadmap for responding to civil fines using the resources developed by Free Migration Project, Public Justice, Legal Aid Society of New York, NYU Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, and Center for Constitutional Rights. Those resources include a practice advisory, an attorney-facing model brief, a public-facing FAQ document, and a pro se model brief. We will discuss our process for developing and sharing these materials, including accessibility, communications, organizing, and dissemination considerations. Participants will leave better equipped to respond to civil fines that may be issued to clients or members of their community, network with others who are navigating similar challenges, and understand strategies for developing similar public awareness campaigns.

  • Upon completion, audience participants will be able to respond to civil fines using the practice advisory and model brief and share resources with their legal and non-legal communities.
  • Upon completion, audience participants will be able to develop shareable materials to meet unique needs in their own community.

Caitlin Power, n/a

Legal Investigator

Public Justice

As the Public Justice’s Debtors’ Prison Project Investigator Caitlin’s work focuses on building trusting relationships with clients and conducting research related to emerging or ongoing cases. Caitlin received their master’s in education policy from Loyola University Chicago in 2022 where their research focused on youth organizing. Before joining Public Justice, Caitlin was a Policy Analyst with the Partnership for College Completion where they led the organization’s research on debt, predatory or fraudulent institutional and servicer behavior and co-authored mixed-methods studies examining racial and economic inequities in post-secondary access, affordability, and accountability in Illinois.

Mariam Elbakr

Hasan Shafiqullah

Immigration Supervising Attorney

The Legal Aid Society (New York)

Hasan Shafiqullah is an immigration supervising attorney in the Law Reform Unit of The Legal Aid Society, in New York City. He was previously the Attorney-in-Charge of The Legal Aid Society’s Immigration Law Unit, one of the largest not-for-profit immigration practices in the country. He is also a former professor of immigration law at Cardozo Law School. For the past 28 years, he has represented clients in a range of civil legal services matters, and since 2009 has specialized in immigration law. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Immigration Representation and the New York City Bar Association’s Immigration and Nationality Law Committee. He is a graduate of the University of California Hastings College of the Law and of the University of Arizona. He holds a certificate in French to English legal translation from New York University, as well as a degree in Pastry and Baking Arts from the Institute of Culinary Education.
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