Illegals Self-Deporting From the United States

"[Those who are self-deporting can use biographical data, documents, facial images and geo location in the app to prove that they have left the country.]"

"The alien must be at least three miles outside of the United States to successfully utilize this feature."

"While the use of the verify departure functionality is optional, if the alien chooses to use it, they must submit a facial image. It's required."

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin

 

"The operative word in that quote from the secretary is 'may'." 

"For many people who leave the United States, there may never be a lawful option for return to the United States, or reentry may be barred for many years."

"Forcing or coercing people into leaving their homes and their loved ones carries political, moral, and economic costs."

Heidi Altman, vice president of policy, National Immigration Law Center

 

"If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest."

"DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App."

Secretary Kristi Noem

 

The scheme relies on the use of the CBP One app, with which a migrant's journey home can be traced  Getty Images

The CBP Home app has been downloaded about 1,500 times each day, according to Appfigures which tracks app downloads. Since January 2025, the app was downloaded about 300,000 times, according to the company’s CEO, Ariel Michaeli.The Trump administration portrays self-deportation as a way for migrants to preserve their ability to return to the United States someday. While speaking to the press, President Trump said immigrants who "self-deport" and leave the U.S. might have a chance to return legally eventually "if they’re good people" and "love our country". And if they aren’t, they won’t."

 

And thus goes Washington's mass deportation, with President Trump's administration trumpeting it was prepared to pay $1,000 to any immigrants illegally in the United States who are willing to voluntarily return to their country of origin. In a news release the Department of Homeland Security stated it was prepared to pay for travel assistance -- that people who use the CBP Home app to inform the government their plan to return home would be "deprioritized" for detention and removal by immigration enforcement.

 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (C) and Sidney Aki (R), director of field operations for the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) San Diego field office walk to the border during a tour of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, in San Diego, California, on March 16, 2025. Alex Brandon | Afp | Getty Images

The Department of Homeland Security revealed one migrant had been paid for a plane ticket to return to Honduras from Chicago, and that more tickets have been booked for this week and the following week. Immigration enforcement and mass deportation of immigrants in the United States illegally was a central promise of the Trump election campaign. An endeavour that is proving to be complex, expensive and resource-intensive. 

The Republican administration, aside from asking Congress for a large increase in resources for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department whose responsibility it is to remove people from the U.S., is also fully engaged in persuading people illegally in the country to 'self-deport'. At the same time, persuasive television advertisements threaten action against anyone currently in the United States illegally. Social media images highlight immigration enforcement arrests and steps to send migrants to a prison in El Salvador.

 

Senior fellow at the American Immigration Council -- Aaron Reichlen-Melnick, advocating for immigrants, pointed out that migrants should be cautious about this latest offer from Homeland Security. It can be worse for people to leave and not pursue their case in immigration court, particularly if they are in removal proceedings. Should migrants in removal proceedings fail to show up in court they can automatically receive a deportation order. 

 

Leaving the country is generally interpreted as abandoning applications for relief, inclusive of asylum applications. "People's immigration status is not as simple as this makes it out to be", he warned.

 

A bus leaves the Bluebonnet Detention Facility after dropping off detainees, after the Supreme Court temporarily barred President Donald Trump's administration from deporting Venezuelan men in immigration custody, in Anson, Texas, April 21, 2025. Photo by Daniel Cole/Reuters