The administration of US President Donald Trump is offering illegal immigrants $1,000 and paid travel to self-deport from the United States.
“Self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was quoted by the BBC.
At the same time, the US president has claimed that illegal immigrants who accept this offer could be given the option of legally moving to the US in the future.
“We’re going to work with them so that maybe someday, with a little work, they can come back in if they’re good people, if they’re the kind of people that we want in our [country],” President Trump was quoted by the BBC. It was not however immediately clear how this plan of reinviting them will work out.
According to the BBC, immigrants who sign up for the self-deportation offer will not be prioritized for detention by the immigration officials. This is aimed at cutting the costs for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Currently, the average cost to arrest, detain, and deport a migrant currently stood at more than $17,000.
To sign up for self-deportation, immigrants are required to use the CBP Home app which also be used to confirm their return to their country.
The BBC reported that this new move comes as Trump’s plan of conducting mass deportations appears to lose steam. “The [Trump] administration has so far not managed to deport as many migrants as promised, and courts have blocked Trump’s attempts to end birthright citizenship for certain children,” the BBC reported.
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On the other hand, though, the number of arrests at the country’s southern border has reduced. In the month of March for instance, data from the Border Patrol showed that there was a record low of just over 7,000 arrests at the US-Mexico border.
