U.S. Customs and Border Protection is seeking private investigators to locate deported immigrants and others who left the country, pressuring them to pay fines the government says they owe, WIRED reported. The $9 million, two-year program covers Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, with contractors confirming residences through records and home photos, while also providing a bilingual notice of alleged penalties. The fines stem from a rarely enforced 1996 law allowing charges of nearly $1,000 per day for up to five years, producing some bills over $1.8 million, and DHS has assessed more than $84 billion in total; the agency had said these fines would be canceled for those who departed but a CBP spokesperson said people who didn't leave using the CBP Home app may still owe them, and even some app users face a non-waivable $5,130 fee if previously removed and later arrested by ICE. Legal Aid Society attorney Hasan Shafiqullah said collection agencies are tacking on roughly $500,000 in extra fees, and an NYU School of Law study found the fines have led to seized tax refunds, wage garnishments and lowered credit scores. As of July, an estimated 66,387 removed people carried unpaid CBP fines, and existing debt collectors had not located a single person outside the U.S.