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The Trump administration said Monday it is offering $1,000 stipends to undocumented immigrants who “self-deport” to their home countries using a U.S. Customs and Border Protection app.

Billing it as a “historic opportunity” and a “dignified way to leave the U.S.,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that those who submit an “Intent to Depart” through the CBP Home app will receive travel and financial assistance to return to their home countries, in addition to $1,000 paid after their return has been confirmed.

The average cost for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest, detain and remove an immigrant illegally in the United States is $17,121, according to DHS. The agency claims that even with the cost of the stipend, a “self-deportation” would decrease the cost of a deportation by about 70 percent.

“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest. … Download the CBP Home App TODAY and self-deport,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said in a statement.

President Donald Trump vowed to deport at least 1 million people in the first year of his second term, and he has used federal agencies, executive orders and even the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act to facilitate his mass deportation of migrants, often with questionable legal ramifications. At least a dozen U.S. citizens have been caught up in Trump’s immigration crackdown, and other migrants have been accused of being gang members and removed from the country without due process.

“I was elected to get them the hell out of here,” Trump said Sunday in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Since Trump took office, ICE agents have raided warehouses, restaurants and predominantly Latino neighborhoods around the country in an effort to meet aggressive quotas established by the Trump administration. Over a recent six-day period in Florida, state and federal law enforcement agents arrested 1,120 people as part of a sweeping immigration operation. Most of those arrested were from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela and El Salvador.

The Washington Post examined which groups of immigrants could be at higher risk of deportation under the second Trump administration, and what logistical and financial obstacles stand in the way.

End of carousel

According to the DHS, there has already been one instance of a migrant who “utilized the program” and received a ticket for a flight from Chicago to Honduras. The agency also said additional tickets have been booked for this week and the following week but did not provide details. Representatives for the agency did not immediately respond to emailed questions Monday.

The agency also said in its statement that migrants who voluntarily self-deport through the CBP Home app will be “deprioritized for detention and removal ahead of their departure as long as they demonstrate they are making meaningful strides in completing that departure.” The agency also said migrants who participate may be able to reenter the United States legally in the future, but did not specify how.

At the White House Monday, Trump also said those who self-deported would be given “a path to coming back into the country” but did not detail what that pathway would look like.

“What we thought we’d do is a self-deport where we’re going to pay each one a certain amount of money, and we’re going to get him a beautiful flight back to where they came from,” Trump told reporters. “We’re going to work with them so that maybe someday, with a little work, they can come back in — if they’re good people, if they’re the kind of people that we want in our country, industrious people that could love our country. And if they’re not, they won’t.”

Asked Monday on Fox News why migrants should trust the offer, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said there would be “documentation.”

“And we’re giving you our word that we will give you this money and that you can leave today,” McLaughlin told the network. “It’s the safest way. You will not be arrested, you will not be detained, and we will give you that free flight.”

Shortly after the program was announced, at least one Democrat voiced his criticism.

“This is America — and a nation as aspirational as ours, strengthened by the diversity of all seeking hope and opportunity, should never be reduced to pay-to-deport,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-New York), who formerly was an undocumented immigrant, wrote on X. “We don’t bribe people to leave. We build a country where everyone belongs.”

Immigration during Trump’s second term

Trump’s aggressive crackdown: Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has made immigration enforcement one of his top priorities. He issued a series of executive orders that include declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, deploying hundreds of troops there and attempting to end birthright citizenship for the children of noncitizens, a move that a federal judge has temporarily blocked. The administration has also largely closed access to the asylum process, suspended refugee resettlement and ended temporary humanitarian protections for about 350,000 Venezuelans who sought refuge in the United States. These policies have created widespread panic and confusion in immigrant communities across the country.

More resources diverted: Trump has promised to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally, and administration officials have directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to aggressively ramp up the number of people they arrest, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500. To meet these goals, the administration has enlisted personnel from the FBI, U.S. Marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. To quickly increase ICE’s detention capacity, the administration has begun to send migrants to the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

Pushback in the courts: Advocacy groups and others have filed lawsuits over many of Trump’s new policies. Officials in 22 states, plus D.C. and San Francisco, have sued over Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigrant Justice Center and others have challenged the Trump administration’s claim that there is an “invasion” on the border to justify summarily expelling migrants without giving them a chance to apply for asylum.

Credit: The Washington Post