In what might be the world’s strangest travel reimbursement programme, the Trump administration has unveiled a bold new initiative: handing out $1,000 to migrants who decide to self-deport from the US. Leave the country and get paid for it.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did some number crunching and found that it costs around $17,000 to arrest, hold, and deport a person staying in the US illegally. Compare that to just forking over a grand and calling it a day, and you’ve got yourself a fiscal no-brainer.
Since taking office on January 20, President Donald Trump has deported 152,000 people. That’s fewer than the 195,000 deported from February to April last year during Joe Biden’s term, because nothing says “tough on immigration” like lagging behind your predecessor.
Trump, who once vowed to deport “millions,” is currently behind Biden in, what could be called, the Deportation Olympics.
In March, the government also relaunched a mobile app called CBP Home, basically a rebranded version of a Biden-era app that used to help migrants enter the US legally. Now, it’s been given a fresh coat of “just pack up and leave.”
Yesterday, the DHS dangled another carrot. It said that migrants who left voluntarily “may help preserve” their chance of coming back to the US legally, but it did not divulge details on how it could happen.
