The Department of Homeland Security plans to give illegal aliens the chance to do the right thing—self-deport—and will even incentivize their departure with a $1,000 stipend and free airfare.
The agency announced the plan Monday to encourage illegal immigrants to return home and save American taxpayers money. DHS told Fox News that paying for aliens to remove themselves, even with the stipend, will cost around $4,500 on average—a 70% savings versus the court system.
Illegal aliens can receive financial and travel assistance to expedite travel back to their home country through the CBP Home App. According to a news release, the U.S. government will pay for their airfare and issue a $1,000 payment after their return has been confirmed through the app.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared Monday on Fox’s Hannity to explain the program and how it will save thousands of dollars. Self-deporting through the CBP Home will decrease the costs of a deportation by around 70 percent. Currently, the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove an illegal alien is $17,121, Noem said.
“We will facilitate them finding their way back to their countries,” Noem said on Hannity. “We will pay for their plane ticket. When they get there, we will verify they are who they said they are and that they are in fact back home. And then they will be paid $1,000 dollars.”
Self-deportation allows illegal aliens to go through the process of legally entering the country if they leave before they are found by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“If they wait until we arrest them and deport them, they don’t ever get the chance to come back to the United States,” Noem said. “They don’t ever get the chance at the American dream. So, those individuals that are here illegally need to realize this is their opportunity to do things the right way.”
Besides the cost to arrest, detain, and deport illegal immigrants, they cost states and communities across the country billions of dollars in health care costs, education, and other public services, Hannity noted.
A recent border update with Sheriff Leon Wilmot in Yuma County, Arizona, included an interview with a local hospital administrator who explained the cost of illegal immigration to that nonprofit health system—$26 million in unpaid charges in 2022.
“In 2022, they were coming on their own and they had no resources,” the administrator said. “If they were delivering a baby, they didn’t have anything for the baby. They didn’t have car seats. They didn’t have the means to care for a baby. So, all of those things we needed to do.”
According to DHS, the first self-deportation flights are underway. An illegal alien who entered under the Biden Administration recently used the CBP Home App to receive a ticket for a flight from Chicago to Honduras. According to the press release, additional tickets have already been booked for this week and the following week.
“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Noem said in the release. “This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens and is a 70% savings for US taxpayers.”
Those who use the CBP Home app to leave the U.S. will be “deprioritized for detention and removal” if they are taking steps to exit the country and “making meaningful strides in completing that departure,” according to the release.
It’s all part of the Trump administration’s effort to deport the millions of unvetted illegals who flooded the country under the Biden administration. And while illegal crossings at the southern border have come to a near-screeching halt, judges across the country are trying to block President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
