The Trump administration announced Monday that it will provide $1,000 of financial aid to illegal immigrants who self-deport from the U.S. and take advantage of travel assistance.
The Department of Homeland Security said it will give $1000 to illegal immigrants who use the CBP Home app to self deport and confirm their return home through the app.
“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest. DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Fox News first reported on the new deportation program.
The CBP Home app was created at the beginning of the Trump administration to facilitate self deportation and make U.S. Customers and Border Protection services easily accessible. The app is a retooled version of the Biden administration’s CBP One app, a program former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas used to help facilitate illegal immigration, rather than mitigate it.
At least one illegal immigrant has already used the CBP Home app’s travel assistance to book a flight back to Honduras, the DHS said. Self deportation allows illegals to leave the country voluntarily rather than having to deal with federal immigration authorities.
The Trump administration projects self deportation will lower deportation costs 70 percent, even with the stipend included. It currently costs more than $17,121 to arrest, remove, and detain each illegal immigrant from the country.
“The savings are as much as $1 million per illegal alien family given the long-term costs of free welfare and public support,” top White House policy advisor Stephen Miller said on X.
Illegal aliens who use the CBP Home app to self deport will be de-prioritized in deportation operations if they have made steps towards their self deportation. The self deportation option can also keep open the possibility of the illegal immigrant coming back to the U.S. legally at some point in the future.
The Trump administration is attempting to pursue a mass deportation operation that would remove more illegal aliens than any other in American history. To that end, the White House has proposed a 65 percent increase in DHS appropriations to allocate more federal funding for border security and mass deportations.
The administration has also fought judicial obstacles to its deportations as federal judges nationwide block Trump’s blitz of executive actions on an unprecedented scale. Early on, federal authorities have focused deportation efforts on violent criminals and those with suspected gang affiliations.
