“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 Secretary Secretary Kristi Noem, shown April 30, said in a statement. (Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images) By Jenny JarvieNational Correspondent May 5, 2025 Updated 10:29 AM PT Share Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print 18 The Trump administration announced a plan Monday to try to ramp up the number of deportations: paying undocumented immigrants $1,000 if they return to their home country voluntarily. The Department of Homeland Security called the plan a “historic opportunity for illegal aliens,” noting in a news release that it would also pay for travel assistance. Any immigrant who used the Customs and Border Protection Home App to inform the government that they plan to return home, the department said, would receive a $1,000 payment after the government had confirmed their return. Advertisement “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. “This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens and is a 70% savings for US taxpayers.”President Trump has made mass deportations — a key platform of his 2024 election campaign — a priority in his first three months in office. But so far, the actual number of immigrants deported under his Republican administration has slightly lagged the number deported under his predecessor, Democratic President Biden, as fewer immigrants are now attempting to cross the U.S. border. Last week, Trump escalated his showdown with Democratic-led states and cities on immigration enforcement, signing executive orders that direct federal agencies to publish a list of “sanctuary cities” that do not cooperate with federal agents in immigration enforcement. Advertisement World & Nation Trump signs orders ramping up immigration showdown with sanctuary cities and states One order directs the attorney general and Homeland Security secretary to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions that ‘obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws.’ April 28, 2025 The Trump administration is promoting its incentives to immigrants who are in the country illegally to leave on their own as a “dignified way to leave the U.S.” — one that it says will have them deprioritized for detention or being picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents if they demonstrate they’re making plans to depart. Self-deporting, the news release states, “may help preserve the option” for undocumented immigrants “to re-enter the United States legally in the future.”Some immigration experts warned that this was a falsehood.“It is an incredibly cruel bit of deception for DHS to be telling people that if they leave they ‘will maintain the ability to return to the U.S. legally in the future,’ Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said on the social media platform X. “Many people who might see this as an option would be put in a WORSE OFF legal position, he added, “So this is a TRAP.” Advertisement The Trump administration also touts its plan as a deal for American taxpayers.“Even with the cost of the stipend, it is projected that the use of CBP Home will decrease the costs of a deportation by around 70 percent,” the Department of Homeland Security said in its release, noting that it costs more than $17,000, on average, to arrest, detain and remove an undocumented immigrant.Homeland Security said that an immigrant in the U.S. illegally recently used the program to receive a ticket for a flight from Chicago to Honduras, and that additional plane tickets have been booked for the next few weeks. This is a developing story and will be updated. More to Read ‘It is time for you to leave’: DHS mistakenly sends notices to U.S. citizens April 23, 2025 More immigrants opt to self-deport rather than risk being marched out like criminals April 18, 2025 Social Security lists thousands of living immigrants as dead to prompt them to leave, AP sources say April 10, 2025
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