The administration of US President Donald Trump on Monday said it will pay for the travel and give $1,000 to undocumented migrants who “self-deport” back to their home country.
Trump said this while addressing reporters during an event at the White House.
According to him, some of the undocumented migrants who take advantage of the self-deportation scheme will be given a path to legally return to the United States.
“We’re going to pay each one a certain amount of money, and we’re going to get them a beautiful flight back to where they came from.
“We’re going to work with them so that maybe someday, with a little work, they can come back in if they’re good people, if they’re the kind of people that we want in our (country).
It will give them a path to coming back into the country,” he said.
While announcing the travel assistance and $1,000 stipend program, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, said self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest.
Noem said the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, is offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.
DAILY POST reports that CBP Home refers to an app already created by the DHS through which people can deport themselves.
According to DHS, the stipend of $1,000 will be paid after a person’s return to their home country has been confirmed through the app.
“Self-deportation is a dignified way to leave the US and will allow illegal aliens to avoid being encountered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” the department said in the statement.
DHS reiterated that even with the payment of travel assistance and the stipend it is projected that the use of CBP Home will decrease the costs of a deportation by around 70 percent.
It added that the average cost currently to arrest, detain, and remove an undocumented migrant is $17,121.
DHS further stated that an undocumented migrant from Honduras had already taken advantage of the program to return home.
Trump, during his presidential campaign, pledged to carry out mass deportations and claimed during the White House event that there are as many as 21 million undocumented migrants in the United States.
