Trump administration offers migrants about $1,300 to voluntarily leave US
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Venezuelan migrants arriving at Simon Bolivar International Airport, in Maiquetia, Venezuela, on April 3 after being deported from the US.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is offering undocumented migrants US$1,000 (S$1,295) and paid travel if they agree to leave the US voluntarily, the latest effort to ramp up mass deportations and slash enforcement costs.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said migrants who self-deport using the CBP Home app will receive the stipend once it is verified that they have returned to their home country.
Officials called the programme a more efficient alternative to costly arrests and removals.
“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.
The initiative marks a shift in how DHS handles removals that began earlier in 2025
Under former president Joe Biden, the original CBP One app was used to schedule asylum interviews. Now in Mr Donald Trump’s second term, it has been repurposed to encourage migrants to leave on their own.
DHS projects that even with the new payout, the programme will cut deportation costs by about 70 per cent. The agency estimates that traditional enforcement – including arrest, detention and removal – costs taxpayers roughly US$17,000 per person.
DHS said the programme has already been used successfully, with one migrant recently receiving a flight from Chicago to Honduras. Additional travel arrangements have been booked for this week and next.
The roll-out comes as deportations have not met the administration’s targets following a series of high-profile raids. So far in 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made 66,000 arrests and deported about 65,600 people, according to the latest data.
The administration has also taken steps to narrow legal immigration pathways, pausing some green card applications and refusing to renew Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Venezuelans, though the courts have temporarily blocked that effort.
Meanwhile, crossings at the southern border have plunged to a decades-low figure of about 7,000 as at March. BLOOMBERG
