Treasury
Cash if Congress writes the Fine
A collections design, not a revenue speech. The sorter does not wait on the Fine. Cash is what hits the account. The rest is an unpaid receivable. Nothing here spends until Congress authorizes the Fine and a dedicated fund. Scored later by CBO and JCT.
Who owes: the qualifying adult. What a miss does: three, then removal. What to brief: 10 percent. $8.88 billion in year 1 if they are current. $88.8 billion if they finish. The child does not pay.
The test
A receipt, or it is nothing.
Written to a standard a Treasury secretary and a Federal Reserve chairman can read as a fiscal note. Neither has reviewed this page. The Federal Reserve is not a party to it.
Not the Fed
The Fine is not a Federal Reserve asset, not collateral, and not a reason to cut rates. Chairman Warsh's remit is price stability. This page does not ask the Fed to finance a fiscal gap, and it does not call the ceiling forward guidance.
Not a forecast
Secretary Bessent can brief a case. He cannot brief a ceiling as cash. Year 1 is $8.88 billion if 500,000 adults are current and Congress has written the Fine. $710 billion and $1.15 trillion are principal owed over ten years or more. They are not this year's deficit reduction.
Do not spend it twice
A dedicated receipt can fund the sorter and the border, or it can be claimed as a tax cut. Not both. Not before a score of take-up, misses, and the interest on a 20-year note, which this page does not invent.
The officer is not the teller
No agent collects the Fine, holds the cash, or trades status for a payment at the door. Collection is a fiscal function, and only after the statute.
The tools
A machine may sort. It may not decide.
Three tools. None of them is a status, a coin, or a shortcut around Congress.
Superintelligence
American systems read the file the government already has: identity, a criminal conviction, a CBP Home departure, a missed month. They put the known case in front of the officer and leave the unknown case behind. A model does not arrest, does not remove, and does not grant a stay. An officer does, under the statute.
The ledger
Every dollar of the Fine, once Congress writes it, is written to an append-only ledger. A dedicated receipt cannot be relabeled after the fact. The public can see the inflow and the use. No token. No private coin. Treasury remains the accountant. The chain is the copy an auditor can check without asking permission.
Quantum, when it is cheaper
The signatures on that ledger move to post-quantum cryptography when the cost of the lock is lower than the risk of waiting. Not as a launch requirement. Not as a research program charged to the Fine.
An enforcement sorter. People with a criminal record are removed sooner. A known file. No door chosen, and the adult moves up the removal list.
7.3 million on the non-detained docket, CRS, February 26, 2026. 66,978 in a bed, CRS, April 9, 2026. GAO, using ICE data, put the average daily population at 67,180 on July 30, 2026. The officer still goes to the person with a criminal record sooner.
| Non-detained docket | 7.3 million | Congressional Research Service. February 26, 2026. |
| In a bed | 66,978 | CRS. April 9, 2026. Bedspace is about 70,000. |
| ICE employees | About 29,000 | New York Times, September 29, 2026, citing federal data as of July. The whole agency, not 29,000 officers on the street. |
Who could qualify
Eligible is not enrolled. Enrolled is not cash. Cash is not citizenship.
2023 counts, from Pew and MPI. The parent figure is inferred from the children. It is not a census line. There is no national file of clean records. Cato’s 2024 estimate, ages 18 to 54, is 674 incarcerations per 100,000 illegal immigrants, about 0.7%. That is not a count of disqualifying crimes. A disqualifying crime removes people. It does not shrink this pool to 500,000.
| Unauthorized, 2023 | 14 million | Pew. All ages. |
| No temporary protection | About 8 million | Pew, 2023. About 6 million of the 14 million had some protection from deportation. This line is the rest. |
| Children in these homes | 6.3 million | MPI, mid-2023. Living with an unauthorized parent. MPI counts 5.3 million of them as U.S. citizens. Pew’s separate count of unauthorized children under 18 is 1.5 million. Do not subtract one source from the other. |
| Family adults | About 4–5 million | Inferred. One or two adults in a home with a child. |
| If 4 million signed | $710.4 billion | 4 million × $177,600. Not a forecast. The amount owed if every one of them signed. They will not. |
Ten years, then citizenship
The sorter is the file. The Fine is later, per qualifying adult, and only if Congress writes it. The standard term is ten years. Twenty years is available: the same Fine, more interest, and no review until it is paid. The child does not pay.
Years 1–10
$1,480 a month
$17,760 a year. $177,600 over ten years. This is the standard term.
Twenty years
Same Fine, more interest
Only if the adult needs the longer term. The principal stays $177,600. The review does not come early.
Pay in full
0% interest
The cash comes forward. A year 9 review only if the statute says so, and only with a clean record.
Year 10
A review, not a grant
Crime-free for the whole term. Fine satisfied. Congress has to write it. A new crime ends it. No status before that day.
After citizenship
Then, and only then
Benefits open. Military-age citizens serve two years, at the border or in logistics. The border billet pays more. That wage does not waive the Fine.
A criminal record is removed sooner. Self-deport. Or be removed.
$8.88B
Year 1
$44.4B
Year 5
$88.8B
Year 10
Plan on 10 percent of 5 million family adults: 500,000 people. That is $8.88 billion in year 1, $44.4 billion by year 5, and $88.8 billion by year 10, if they are current. Twenty-five percent and fifty percent are not the plan. A third miss is not cash. $1.15 trillion is the ceiling, not the plan.
Assumptions: $177,600 per qualifying adult; signup window through December 31, 2027; mix of pay-in-full (0% interest) and the ten-year term; a third uncured miss ends the path and is not counted as cash. A twenty-year extension is allowed. It is the same Fine and more interest, and it is not in these rows. The rows are 10, 25, and 50 percent of 5 million family adults, if current. They are not forecasts.
Not an all-states deal. Both numbers are federal. A state that refuses does not cancel them. It slows the file there, and it keeps paying benefits Washington cannot cut.
See the $1.15T ceiling →Do not book the full Fine as Year-1 revenue. The standard note is ten years. Plan on $8.88 billion in year 1, and only if 500,000 adults are enrolled and current. A third miss is not cash. These rows assume the ten-year note. A twenty-year extension is the same Fine, more interest, and cash that arrives later. It is not in these rows. A child who later elects and pays a separate Fine is not in these rows either.
One adult. Same scale.
- Paid to leave$3,000
- Five times that bonus$15,000
- A forced removal$18,245
- The Fine, if written$177,600
Against the program that already exists
CBP Home is the right leave door. The CBP Home page, updated September 1, 2026, lists a $3,000 exit bonus. DHS has put a forced removal at about $18,245. Both are costs. Neither becomes a reserve. This design does not replace that door. It adds a receivable for the adult who stays, and only if Congress writes it.
| CBP Home now | This design | |
|---|---|---|
| Per adult | $3,000 paid out | $177,600 owed in |
| Direction | Spends | Collects cash as it arrives |
| If a state refuses | The bonus still exists | The Fine still exists. That state only slows. |
| Five times the bonus | $15,000 still goes out | The Fine still comes in |
| A forced removal | About $18,245, once | Avoided only if they leave on their own |
| After they are gone | The check is closed | Ineligible payments can stop each year |
| Years 1, 5, and 10 | Still a cost | $8.88B, then $44.4B, then $88.8B |
Year 1, year 5, and year 10. Plan on 10 percent.
| Horizon | 10% | 25% | 50% | Means |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $8.88B | $22.2B | $44.4B | Cash that year, if current |
| Year 5 | $44.4B | $111B | $222B | Cumulative |
| Year 10 | $88.8B | $222B | $444B | The adult note, if paid |
- 01Five times the exit bonus on the current CBP Home page is still an outflow. That page, updated September 1, 2026, lists $3,000. Five times that is $15,000 paid out. DHS’s July 23 release listed $2,600. The Fine is $177,600 owed in, and only if Congress writes it. About twelve times the $15,000, and the money moves the other way. It builds a reserve over time. It is not an exponential curve, and it is not a claim on the Treasury's own cash balance.
- 02Dedicated fund: sorter and border capacity first, then readiness. Twenty percent of each Fine returns to the state where the adult lives, and that state may spend it only on infrastructure and services. Social Security is last. A state that refuses the file does not receive the share.
- 03Paying in full brings the cash forward. It is not a discount on the $177,600. Zero interest is the incentive.
- 04Interest on a stretched balance is a timing tool. Twenty years is the same $177,600 and more interest. Do not score that interest as the plan.
- 05A third uncured miss ends the path. The first two can be cured and still count. Unpaid remainder is not spendable. A miss is an enforcement input, not a Treasury miss.
Use of each Fine, if collected
Border & sorter
45% · $79,920
Beds, officers, biometrics, CBP Home logistics — the gap against a 7.3 million non-detained docket.
Military readiness
25% · $44,400
Logistics, personnel, and the peace-through-strength floor — not a replacement for the defense bill.
Infrastructure
20% · $35,520
Twenty percent of each Fine, $35,520, returns to the state where that adult lives. Roads, water, schools, hospitals, and public safety. Not a check to the person who paid. A state that refuses the file does not receive it. That cash stays in the federal fund.
Social Security
10% · $17,760
Secondary only, after the sorter and the border are funded. A share in the spirit of 1776, not a claim that this cuts taxes.