Immigration Civil Fines in Texas: DHS Ratifies Every Penalty Issued Since June 2025, and Sets a November 16, 2026 Deadline to Raise a Claim of Prejudice

What Changed, and When

The document is a notice, not a rule. It is titled Ratification of Civil Penalties, the agency is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement within DHS, and the stated action is simply “Ratification.” It was filed for public inspection on October 23, 2026 at 8:45 am as document 2026–21751 and is scheduled for publication at 91 FR 67325, in Volume 91, Number 205, dated Monday, October 26, 2026. It is signed by Markwayne Mullin, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In the notice’s own words, the Secretary “hereby ratifies all final civil penalty decisions, as defined in 8 CFR 281.1(f)(3), issued pursuant to the procedures codified at 8 CFR part 281 from June 27, 2025, through October 13, 2026.” Three categories are carved out. The ratification does not reach penalties that “have been reversed on appeal, are currently pending appeal, or have otherwise been reopened and rescinded pursuant to 8 CFR 281.1(f)(1).”

Two sentences in the notice explain what the Department says it is and is not doing:

• On timing: “This ratification is issued on October 26, 2026 and relates back to the original date of each civil penalty assessed in accordance with the interim regulations.”
• On purpose: “The Department of Homeland Security is issuing this ratification out of an abundance of caution, and this ratification is not a statement that the fines covered by this ratification would have been invalid absent this ratification.” The notice says the Secretary acted “[t]o resolve any uncertainty.”

The fines themselves are the ones this site has written about before. The notice confirms that “the procedure outlined at 8 CFR part 281 remains the procedure by which civil penalties issued under 8 U.S.C. 1324d(a)(1), 1229c(d), and 1325(b) are assessed,” and that the only change the October 2026 final rule made to the 2025 interim rule is that it “permits acceptance of a late-filed appeal based on documentary evidence demonstrating a mail delivery delay that ICE finds was beyond an alien’s control.” Those three statutes are, in order: willful failure to depart after a final removal order, failure to depart within a voluntary departure period, and improper entry. The amounts, the fifteen-business-day appeal clock and the internal DHS review are set out in our earlier page on the final rule that took effect October 14, 2026, which also covers the September 30, 2026 order from a federal judge in Massachusetts staying the 2025 interim rule and blocking enforcement of fines imposed under it while that case proceeds.

The new notice does not mention that court order. It does not say what the ratification means for the stay, for money already collected, or for cases already referred for collection, and it does not change any appeal deadline. What it adds to the public record is the ratification itself and one dated opportunity, described next.

Who in Texas This Reaches

The notice is federal and contains no Texas-specific text, but the group it describes is defined by paperwork rather than geography, and a large share of that paperwork is in Texas mailboxes.

• Anyone in Texas holding a final civil penalty decision dated between June 27, 2025 and October 13, 2026. That date range is the whole scope of the ratification, and the date on the decision is what places a notice inside or outside it.
• People with a final order of removal whose penalty accrued daily under 8 U.S.C. 1324d(a)(1). DHS announced in July 2026 that more than 103,000 civil fines had been issued, totaling roughly $84 billion, with individual penalties reported as high as $1.8 million.
• People granted voluntary departure by an immigration judge, including in the Texas immigration courts in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, El Paso and Harlingen, who did not depart within the period the judge set.
• People apprehended entering or attempting to enter along the Texas border, where the per-entry penalty under 8 U.S.C. 1325(b) applies.
• Mixed-status households. A money judgment against one member of a household is a household matter, and a penalty that accrued daily behaves very differently from a single flat fine.
• People whose appeal is still pending, or whose penalty was reversed or rescinded. Those three groups are expressly outside the ratification, which is a meaningful distinction for anyone trying to work out which document applies to them.

What This Changes Legally

Three things are worth separating, because the notice keeps them separate.

• A ratification is a backward-looking act. The notice describes the general principle it relies on: that under established case law an agency may, through ratification, address a potential defect in a prior governmental action. It states that the ratification “relates back to the original date of each civil penalty.”
• The prejudice process is not an appeal. The notice could not be plainer: “This process is not an additional appeal mechanism; rather, it is limited to claims of prejudice for civil penalties issued under the interim regulations.” The existing appeal rights and deadlines under 8 CFR part 281 are unchanged by this notice.
• The window is dated and the format is prescribed. The notice provides that “[a]ny respondent alien who asserts that he or she has been prejudiced by the interim regulations may raise that claim to ICE to evaluate whether such prejudice has been shown and what remedy, if any, is appropriate.” It directs such a claim to the email address [email protected], asks for the person’s full name, date of birth and alien registration number in the subject line, and for the current address, current phone number, penalty tracking number and an invoice number if applicable in the claim itself. It then states: “ICE will not review claims that fail to include the above-listed required information,” and “[a]ll claims must be received by ICE on or before November 16, 2026.”

Note what the notice leaves open on its face. It says ICE will evaluate “whether such prejudice has been shown and what remedy, if any, is appropriate” — it does not define prejudice, name a standard, or describe any particular remedy. Whether a given set of facts fits that language, and whether raising such a claim is the right step for one person in one posture, is exactly the kind of question an immigration attorney reads against the actual file.

One practical point sits on top of all of this: the process the notice describes asks a person to send identifying information about themselves and their case directly to ICE by email. That is a decision with consequences in both directions, and it is a decision an immigration lawyer can walk through with someone before anything is sent.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

Nothing on this page is advice about any individual case, and no one can tell from the outside which of these fits a particular file. These are the kinds of questions immigration attorneys describe working through when a civil fine notice is on the table:

• Which document governs this notice. The date on the decision determines whether it falls inside the June 27, 2025 to October 13, 2026 range, and whether it sits in one of the three carve-outs instead.
• Where the appeal clock stands. The notice does not alter the appeal deadlines in 8 CFR part 281, and the October 2026 final rule added a route for a late appeal supported by documentary evidence of a mail delay found to be beyond the person’s control.
• What the Massachusetts litigation means for this file. A preliminary order staying the 2025 interim rule is a live piece of context that a lawyer can check against current dockets, because a preliminary order is not a final judgment and can change.
• Whether a prejudice claim makes sense here, and in what form. The notice sets a format and a date; it does not say what a persuasive claim looks like, and it says expressly that this is not an appeal.
• How the penalty interacts with everything else in the case. A civil fine can sit alongside a removal order, a pending application, or a collection referral, and those pieces do not move independently.

Many people in this situation have never seen a document like this before and have no way to tell a real deadline from a routine letter. That is an ordinary reason to talk to a lawyer, and talking to one costs nothing through this service.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

The dates in the notice are facts, and they are short. The ratification is issued October 26, 2026. Claims of prejudice “must be received by ICE on or before November 16, 2026” — about three weeks from the publication date, and the notice says ICE will not review a claim that is missing any of the listed information. Separately, the appeal deadline under 8 CFR part 281 runs fifteen business days from service of the decision, which for most notices in this date range has already passed, and the late-appeal route added in October 2026 turns on documentary evidence.

Because the ratification reaches back to the original date of each penalty, the posture of an old notice can look different this month than it did last month. It is best to have an immigration lawyer look at the actual paperwork and the current dockets while the November window is still open, rather than afterward.

If a lawyer in our network offers an initial consultation, it is free.

Sources

1. Ratification of Civil Penalties, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security — Federal Register document 2026–21751, filed for public inspection October 23, 2026, scheduled for publication at 91 FR 67325 on October 26, 2026 (primary document).
2. Ratification of Civil Penalties — Federal Register online edition of the same notice.
3. Imposition and Collection of Civil Penalties for Certain Immigration-Related Violations, final rule, 91 FR 65390, effective October 14, 2026.
4. Imposition and Collection of Civil Penalties for Certain Immigration-Related Violations, interim final rule, 90 FR 27439, June 27, 2025 — the interim regulations the ratification covers.
5. ICE confirms fines for not leaving the U.S., CiberCuba, October 23, 2026 — independent reporting on the notice and the November 16, 2026 claim window.
6. Immigration Civil Fines in Texas: the final rule effective October 14, 2026 and the federal court order — related coverage on this site, including the September 30, 2026 Massachusetts stay.