The Department of Homeland Security announced that the stipend for those choosing to “self-deport” has more than doubled from $1,000 to $2,600 to mark President Donald Trump hitting the one-year mark of his second term, stating that the offer “may not last long.” However, advocates say the offer may not be legitimate at all.
“Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in the announcement. “Because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return.”
It’s part of Trump’s “,” launched in May to encourage unauthorized immigrants to leave the U.S. voluntarily. DHS initially offered to those returning to their home country via the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home mobile application. During the holidays, the offer was increased, with DHS saying it was “generously TRIPLING” the stipend for the Christmas season for those registering on the app by the end of 2025.
The program, funded by originally intended for helping resettle refugees, aims to reduce deportation costs. According to the latest DHS announcement, a single enforced deportation costs over $18,000, while the $2,600 stipend plus other costs including comped airfare for those “self-deporting” through the CBP Home app totals just over $5,000.
But while Noem claims that 2.2 million people have voluntarily “self-deported” since last January, including “tens of thousands” using the CBP Home app, reported in December that the overall figure, without verifiable data, is implausible and would have had noticeable impacts on the labor market. Moreover, the Atlantic calculated that the true cost of each of some 35,000 “self-deportations,” factoring in a for the program, was about $7,500.
also reported in October that among some 25,000 immigrants who had left through the CBP Home app by then, many did not receive assistance from DHS.
And reported in December that while some who “self-deported” got a $1,000 stipend, others either never received it or faced significant delays and difficulties. Others alleged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials used the stipend to deceive them, even though they were ineligible for the program, into leaving the U.S. without any benefits or into revealing their location, which could be used to detain and deport them. And while the program gives the impression that those participating may be eligible to return to the U.S. under legal pathways, that has not been true for some, who have found themselves facing yearslong or even lifetime bans from reentry.
These are in line with critics’ earlier warnings about the program. When the program incentivizing “self-deportation” emerged last year, the American Immigration Lawyers Association described it as a “deeply misleading and unethical trick,” adding that the government’s offer “is not as simple—or as safe—as it sounds.”
“Offering undocumented migrants a cash stipend to leave the country is neither sound policy nor smart politics,” attorney Raul Reyes wrote for last year. “And with this Administration’s antipathy toward migrants, it could well be a trap with life-altering consequences.”
