US offers $1,000 stipend, travel assistance to undocumented immigrants who ‘self-deport’

The United States on Monday said that it would offer a $1,000 stipend and travel assistance to undocumented immigrants who elect to “self-deport” from the country.

“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,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

It said that “any illegal alien who uses the CBP Home App to self-deport” would receive a stipend of $1,000, paid after their return to their home country has been confirmed.

The CBP Home App, or the Customs and Border Protection Home mobile application, allows undocumented immigrants or persons whose visa has expired or has been revoked to notify the US government of their intent to leave the country, “offering them the chance to leave before facing harsher consequences”.

The Department of Homeland Security also claimed that the stipend and potential airfare for migrants who voluntarily departed would cost less than an actual deportation by about 70%. “Currently the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove an illegal alien is $17,121,” it said.

It added: “The first illegal alien to utilise travel assistance has already returned to Honduras.”

The statement comes at a time when US President Donald Trump’s administration has undertaken a wider crackdown on undocumented immigration that includes mass...

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