$3,000 and a plane ticket: The United States increases incentives for migrants to self-deport before the end of the year

With just over a week left in the year, the Donald Trump administration wants to remove as many migrants as possible. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it will offer $3,000 to any undocumented immigrant who self-deports by the end of December, tripling the monetary incentive previously offered for voluntary deportations. The government will also cover the cost of the return flight for anyone who chooses this option.

The so-called “exit bonus” applies “to people that have not been detained” or “are detained and don’t have criminal charges against them,” according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “Raise your hand, we’ll help you get home. We’ll facilitate, and you might get the chance to come back to this country the right way some day. If you wait until we have to detain you and arrest you and have to deport you ourselves, you’ll never get the chance to come back,” the official warned in an interview with Fox News.

In a press release, the department added that people who choose to leave voluntarily using the official government app may also be exempt from civil fines or penalties related to their unlawful stay in the United States. “Self-deportation through the CBP Home app is the best gift that an illegal alien can give themselves and their families this holiday season,” the statement added.

The Trump administration launched CBP Home last March to promote self-deportations, a cornerstone of the mass deportation campaign launched by the Republican nearly a year ago. To that end, the Department of Homeland Security repurposed an app that the administration of former president Joe Biden had used to help asylum seekers obtain an appointment at the border to legally enter the country, and in May began offering $1,000 to migrants who used it to self-deport.

Noem claims that 1.9 million undocumented immigrants have self-deported since January of this year, with “tens of thousands” doing so through CBP Home. However, her department has not released detailed figures to corroborate either claim. It is also unclear how many individuals actually received the monetary incentive or whether the government has paid for their return flights.

For months, immigration lawyers have warned that the government’s promise that those who self-deport now can return legally in the future is a “trap.” If an undocumented migrant leaves voluntarily after being in the U.S. without authorization for more than 365 days, they face a 10-year reentry ban under current law. And even if they don’t have to wait the full decade to try to come back, CBP Home offers no tools to facilitate their return.

Some migrants who chose self-deportation after being detained by immigration authorities told EL PAÍS that the government kept them in custody for weeks or even months after they signed documents agreeing to their voluntary departure. Others have complained to other outlets that they never received the money that had been promised for voluntarily leaving the country.

Trump promised to deport one million people in the first year of his second term, which ends on January 20. To date, according to the limited data available, authorities have deported approximately 605,000 people. Meanwhile, migrant detention centers remain overcrowded, with more than 65,700 people being held as of the end of November.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition