The Trump administration is offering a cash stipend and travel home to undocumented immigrants who willingly leave the United States, officials said on Monday, its latest effort to increase deportations.
The policy, which will offer $1,000 and a flight home to each immigrant who leaves, is part of the Trump administration’s push to persuade immigrants to deport themselves as a way to help the president meet lofty immigration promises. Already, officials said, one migrant from Honduras has taken the government up on the offer and flown from Chicago back to his home country.
In recent weeks, the administration has increasingly advised certain immigrants in the United States to leave before being targeted by the authorities. It has also turned to policies to make life uncomfortable for those in the country without legal status, like cutting off certain migrants from access to financial services.
The money being offered to migrants who leave on their own will be paid after they confirm their travel home through a government app the Trump administration unveiled earlier this year called CBP Home, officials said. Trump officials say the program will save the government money by avoiding the costs necessary to arrest, detain and fly people out of the country on government-chartered planes.
“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said in a statement.
The Trump administration announced last week that it had deported around 140,000 migrants from the U.S. since January. The numbers, at this point, do not put the administration on track to fulfill a central campaign promise of President Trump: removing millions of people who are in the country illegally.
Deportations can be costly and time-intensive as U.S. officials often must detain migrants for a long period, coordinate travel documents and prepare chartered planes to many different countries. There are often issues as well involving migrants from countries that do no accept their nationals or make the process so cumbersome that it takes even longer to remove people.
Mr. Trump hinted at a travel incentive policy in a recent interview with Fox Noticias.
“But what we want to do is we’re going to have a self deportation program, which we haven’t even announced yet,” he told the network in mid-April. “The only thing I haven’t determined is, what are we going to do? We’re going to give them a stipend, 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.”
