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The administration says the program to pay migrants $1,000 once their travel home is confirmed will save money because of how expensive it is to find, detain and deport people.
May 5, 2025Updated 7:39 p.m. ET
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.
On Monday, President Trump said the program was necessary and would offer people a different way to leave the country.
“But 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 them a beautiful flight back to where they came from, and they have a period of time, and if they make it, 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,” he said.
It’s unclear how people could return.
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.
