Trump administration says it will pay immigrants in the U.S. illegally $1,000 to leave the country

DHS offers financial assistance for self-deportation through CBP Home app, aiming to reduce illegal immigration enforcement costs.

President Donald Trump's administration said Monday (May 5, 2025) that it is going to pay immigrants who are in the United States illegally and return to their home country voluntarily $1,000 as it pushes forward with its mass deportation agenda.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that it's also paying for travel assistance and that those people who use an app called CBP Home to tell the government that they plan to return home will be “deprioritized” for detention and removal by immigration enforcement.

“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest," Secretary Kristi Noem said. “DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.”

The department said it had already paid for a plane ticket for one migrant to return home to Honduras from Chicago and said more tickets have been booked for this week and next.

Mr. Trump has made immigration enforcement and the mass deportation of immigrants in the U.S. illegally a centrepiece of his campaign, but that is a costly, resource-intensive endeavour.

While the Republican administration is pushing Congress for a massive increase in resources for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department responsible for removing people from the country, it’s also pushing people in the country illegally to “self-deport.”

It has coupled this self-deportation push with television ads threatening action against people in the U.S. illegally and social media images showing immigration enforcement arrests and migrants being sent to a prison in El Salvador.