$1,000 to leave the US - How is Trump trying to fight illegal immigrants?!
US President Donald Trump's administration said on Monday it would pay illegal immigrants $1,000 (880 euros) to voluntarily return to their countries of origin, in the most significant step in its plans to tackle the issue.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a press release that it would also pay for travel assistance and that people who use an app called CBP Home to tell the government they plan to return home will be “deprioritized” for detention and removal by immigration authorities. “If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest ,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial assistance for travel and a payment to return to their country through the CBP Home App ,” she added. The app is a revamped version of one previously used by the Biden administration to allow nearly 1 million immigrants to schedule appointments to enter the country legally. DHS said it had already paid for a plane ticket for one person to return home to Honduras from Chicago, adding that more tickets are being booked for this week and next.
Self-deportation as self-defense
The Trump administration has often tried to portray self-deportation as a way for people currently in the country without legal status to ensure they can return to the U.S. at a future date. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump himself said that immigrants who “self-deport” and leave the U.S. may have a chance to eventually return legally “if they’re good people” and “love our country.” “And if they’re not, they won’t, ” he said.
However, immigrant rights groups have urged caution. According to Aaron Reichlen-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, it is often worse for undocumented people — especially those already in removal proceedings — to leave the country rather than fight their cases in immigration court.
Reichlen-Melnick warned that immigrants in removal proceedings who fail to appear in court risk automatically receiving a deportation order. He explained that leaving the country is usually counted as abandoning a request for relief or an asylum claim, adding that DHS has not shown any close coordination with the courts to ensure that people who leave the U.S. do not face consequences.
Indeed, the Trump administration has accompanied its push for self-deportation with television ads threatening action against people living in the U.S. illegally, accompanied by social media posts showing immigration enforcement arrests and immigrants being sent to a prison in El Salvador known for harsh conditions.
Problems with mass deportation
Trump made mass deportation of immigrants a central part of his presidential campaign, but the effort remains costly and resource-intensive. His administration has asked Congress for a massive increase in resources for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency responsible for apprehending people targeted for deportation. According to the Department of Homeland Security, it costs $17,121 (€15,104) to arrest, detain and remove someone from the United States.
Self-deportation has been seen as attractive by the Trump administration because it doesn't require extensive government-to-government negotiations to get a country to take back its citizens. But a number of countries either refuse to take back citizens returned by U.S. immigration enforcement officials or make the process challenging.
A 2011 study by the Migration Policy Institute and the European University Institute found that there were about 128 similar schemes — often referred to as “pay to go” programs — around the world. But the study also found that with a few exceptions, such as a program to return people from Germany to Bosnia in the 1990s, these voluntary return programs generally failed to encourage large numbers of people to return home. It is not clear whether these programs resulted in migrants who received the payments staying in their countries of origin and not trying to emigrate again.
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