The Government of United States tripled to $3,000 the monetary incentive for undocumented immigrants who choose to self-deport before December 31, announced this Monday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which will also pay for return flights.
“If you wish to voluntarily return to your country of origin and are illegally in the U.S., we will give you $3,000 during the holidays so you can go home. We will buy you the plane ticket and give you $3,000 to return to your country,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Noem specified that this increase in the “exit bonus” will only be effective until the end of the year and includes “people who have not been detained” by immigration agents and those “who are detained and have no criminal charges” against them. “Raise your hand. We will help you return home,” she assured in an interview with the FoxNews network.
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The U.S. had already announced last May a stipend of $1,000 and the plane ticket back to their countries for undocumented immigrants who choose to leave the country voluntarily.
“We will facilitate the process and perhaps they will have the opportunity to return to this country the right way someday. If they wait for us to intercept them, stop them, arrest them and have to deport them ourselves, they will never have the opportunity to return,” warned Noem.
The DHS secretary urged those who choose self-deportation to download and use the official CBP Home application. “We will make sure they get home in time for Christmas,” she assured.
In a statement, Homeland Security reported this Monday that since the return of President Donald Trump to the White House last January, 1.9 million undocumented immigrants have chosen voluntary deportation, of them tens of thousands through CBP Home.
The Trump administration has moved quickly to fulfill the president’s campaign promises to carry out the largest deportation campaign in the country’s history.
Multiple arrests and raids against undocumented immigrants since the president’s return to power have drawn strong criticism from the Republican’s detractors and pro-immigrant organizations.
