Trump triples self-deportation bonus to $3,000 for undocumented migrants

By Hadriana Lowenkron

  The Trump administration is offering undocumented migrants $3,000 and paid travel if they agree to leave the US voluntarily before the end of the year, its latest effort to escalate mass deportations and slash enforcement costs.

 

Undocumented migrants who self-deport using the CBP Home app will have their travel arranged and paid for by the Department of Homeland Security and will qualify for forgiveness of any civil fines or penalties for failing to leave the US, according to the department. The $3,000 stipend is triple the $1,000 payout the department unveiled in May.

 

The policy announcement is part of a holiday-season campaign aimed at speeding up deportations. One post on the Homeland Security Department’s X account warned people living illegally in the US that they are “GOING HO HO HOME.” 

 

“Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

 

Since January 2025, 1.9 million undocumented migrants have voluntarily self-deported, and tens of thousands of them have used CBP Home, according to Noem. Those figures could not be independently verified. The app was created during the Biden administration for migrants to schedule asylum interviews, but President Donald Trump’s team rebranded it and transformed its purpose.

 

Officials have called the programme a more efficient alternative to costly arrests and removals. Even the increased bonus payments would save money for the government, which estimated the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove a migrant at roughly $17,000 per person.

 

DHS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on how that calculus changes with the increased stipend. But “each self-deportation saves taxpayers up to a million dollars (or more) in future benefits,” Trump adviser Stephen Miller said in a post on X without elaborating. 

 

Immigration lawyers and activists have raised doubts about the Trump administration’s claim that migrants who leave voluntarily may be able to return legally. Bloomberg previously reported that in many cases, people who have lived in the US without legal status face automatic bans that can last years, for which waivers are not typically granted.

 

The stipend increase comes as non-voluntary arrests and deportations haven’t met the administration’s early target of 1 million. Since taking office, the Trump administration has deported more than 335,000 people, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.

 

During that same period, ICE arrested more than 285,000 foreigners accused of being in the country illegally or of being deportable.

 

Officials have also taken steps to narrow legal immigration pathways. It announced that it will re-review the cases of all refugees resettled under former President Joe Biden and freeze their green card applications, and will consider among “significant negative factors” a country’s inclusion on the president’s vast travel ban. 

 

The administration has also expanded its travel ban, which initially covered nationals of 19 countries, to those hailing from more than 30 countries.