Trump Admin Says It Will Pay Illegal Immigrants $1,000 To Self-Deport

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that illegal immigrants who use the CBP Home app to initiate their own deportation procedures will receive a $1,000 bonus stipend.

In a statement on Monday, the agency said illegal aliens will “receive both financial and travel assistance to facilitate travel back to their home country through the CBP Home App” and that those individuals who aren’t authorized to be in the United States will get the $1,000 stipend “after their return to their home country has been confirmed through the app.”

Trump administration officials have said that using the government’s self-deportation process is likely the best way for illegal immigrants to remove themselves to avoid being targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.

“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 Secretary Kristi Noem said in the statement. 

“DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App. This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens and is a 70 percent savings for US taxpayers. Download the CBP Home App TODAY and self-deport.”

On the day he took office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump moved to close down the Biden administration’s CBP One app, which had been used by migrants in Mexico to schedule appointments at designated U.S. ports of entry.

Upon CBP One’s cancellation, migrants could no longer schedule appointments, and tens of thousands of border appointments were scrapped.

More than 900,000 people entered the country on immigration parole under CBP One, generally for two years, starting in January 2023.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has repeatedly urged people who are in the country illegally to leave.

Last month, the president told Fox Noticias that while his administration is focused on removing violent criminals from the United States, he wants to provide a more robust “self-deportation program.” At the time, Trump signaled that DHS would provide those individuals with a stipend of some kind.

“We’re going to give them a stipend,” Trump said in mid-April. “We’re going to give them some money and a plane ticket, and then we’re going to work with them—if they’re good—if we want them back in, we’re going to work with them to get them back in as quickly as we can.”

The president also said he wants to help hotels and farms get the workers they need and recommend people to fill needed positions.

“We’re doing a self-deportation and we’re going to make it comfortable for people,” Trump said. 

“And we’re going to work with those people to come back into our country legally.”

During his campaign and in the first months of his administration, Trump has made immigration enforcement and bolstering border security a centerpiece of his agenda. But some of his policy initiatives and executive orders around deportations have been stymied in court.

The high court, in a brief order issued in April, directed the government not to remove Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Texas “until further order of this court.” In a separate case, the Supreme Court also ordered the administration to facilitate the return of a Salvadoran illegal immigrant and accused MS-13 gang member, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador earlier this year.