The Trump administration is now offering $1,000 and flight assistance to any illegal migrant that leaves the United States of their own volition.
An illegal migrant who uses the Trump administration’s CBP Home app to self-deport will receive a $1,000 stipend from the U.S. government, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in a Monday press release. The “historic opportunity” provides financial and travel assistance to those who leave on their own accord, freeing up resources for immigration authorities stretched thin with the current pace of detentions and deportations.
The offer coincides with the administration overseeing a record-breaking drop in illegal migrant encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border and now looking to shore up interior immigration enforcement.
“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.”
Following its first 100 days in office, the Trump administration boasted major accomplishments concerning the border and interior enforcement.
Daily border encounters have fallen 93% and migrant crossings are down by 99.99%, according to a 100-day fact sheet the White House shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation in April. The White House says it has also apprehended more than 151,000 illegal migrants and deported more than 135,000 during this time — including enforcement actions against thousands of MS-13 gang members and hundreds of Tren de Aragua gang bangers..
Immediately upon entering office, the Trump administration nixed the CBP One app, an application reoriented by the Biden White House to allow foreign nationals to apply for asylum in the U.S en masse. The Biden-era app proved incredibly popular with migrants, with asylum seekers making 166 million attempts to secure an appointment with U.S. immigration officials through the app in two years.
In its place, the current administration created the CBP Home App, which includes a feature for illegal migrants to declare their intent to self-deport.
“The Biden Administration exploited the CBP One app to allow more than 1 million aliens to illegally enter the United States,” Noem said when rolling out the CBP Home app. “With the launching of the CBP Home app, we are restoring integrity to our immigration system.”
The Trump White House has since heavily promoted the idea of self-deportation, offering incentives and telling illegal migrants that voluntary departure leaves open the possibility for them to return to the U.S., legally, sometime in the future. In its Monday press release, DHS reiterated that illegal migrants who submit their intent to self-deport on the CBP Home app will be deprioritized for detention and removal as long as they demonstrate that they are making “meaningful strides” in seeing out their departure.
While self-deportation offers illegal migrants the chance to avoid detention, forced removal and financial incentives, the process is also a win for the administration, which must make major financial investments in the removal process. Locating an illegal migrant out in the community, holding them in a detention center and then flying them back to their native country is not a frugal endeavor.
The average cost to arrest, detain and deport a single illegal migrant is $17,121, according to DHS. The administration projects that use of the CBP Home app will lower deportation costs by roughly 70%, even when including the cost of the stipends.
“This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens and is a 70% savings for US taxpayers,” Noem said Monday. “Download the CBP Home App TODAY and self-deport.”
DHS touted its apparent first success story — an illegal migrant allegedly allowed into the U.S. by the Biden administration took the financial offer and booked a flight from Chicago back to their home country of Honduras. The administration says additional tickets have already been booked for the coming days.
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