The amount that the U.S. government will pay illegal immigrants to encourage them to voluntarily leave the country has been made public.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration proposed an initiative to undocumented immigrants in the U.S. as part of its ongoing efforts to control immigration.
“We’re going to give them a stipend,” President Donald Trump stated. “We’re going to give them some money and a plane ticket, and then we’re going to work with them — if they’re good — if we want them back in, we’re going to work with them to get them back in as quickly as we can.”
Initially, the details of the payment under the ‘self-deportation programme’ were unclear. Now, a new statement from Homeland Security has specified the payment amount, and some have criticized it as an ‘insult’.
The announcement released on May 5 detailed: “Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a historic opportunity for illegal aliens to receive both financial and travel assistance to facilitate travel back to their home country through the CBP Home App.
“Any illegal alien who uses the CBP Home App to self-deport will also receive a stipend of $1,000 dollars, paid after their return to their home country has been confirmed through the app.”
DHS emphasized that this approach is a ‘dignified way to leave the US’ without any involvement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
According to DHS, this is the most cost-effective strategy for the U.S. to manage undocumented immigrants, as the average expense for arresting, detaining, and deporting an illegal immigrant is $17,121.
The department noted it had already funded a plane ticket for one individual to return to Honduras from Chicago, with more tickets scheduled for coming weeks.
Addressing the proposal, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, as reported by The Independent: “We’re gonna pay each one a certain amount of money and get them a beautiful flight back to where they came from, and they have a period of time, and if they make it, we’re gonna work with them so that maybe someday, with a little work, they can come back in.”
However, some have criticized the $1,000 offer as insufficient. One person wrote on social media: “This is an insult—both to migrants and to Trump’s own supporters. To migrants, because it’s absurd to think that people risked everything to come to the US for a mere thousand dollars.”
Another remarked: “That’s cheap! Our UK government offers £3000.”