To speed up the process of repatriating tens of millions illegal immigrants, Pres. Trump is offering a carrot. NBC News reports,
The Department of Homeland Security is intensifying its efforts to persuade unauthorized immigrants to self-deport by offering a $1,000 stipend and travel assistance.
The federal agency announced Monday that those who use the CBP Home app to voluntarily leave the United States will receive assistance “to facilitate travel back to their home country” and $1,000 “paid after their return to their home country has been confirmed through the app.”
It would certainly be quicker than years of “due process” litigation and all the resources needed to send people home via ICE, CBP, DHS, and every other three-letter agency that gets involved. The plan is roughly the reverse of how Pres. Biden brought those millions here in the first instance.
From NBC,
A single deportation costs U.S. taxpayers $17,121, according to DHS. The federal agency expects self-deportations to decrease that cost by 70%, even after factoring in the stipend.
So far this year, at least 5,000 immigrants have reportedly used CBP Home to say that they were voluntarily leaving the country, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.
Democratic U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) has a counter offer. From The Hill newspaper,
“Why don’t we make them pay a $5k fine, go through a background check and give them a work visa for a few years, renewable with good behavior,” Gallego said in a post on the social platform X in response to another post from The Associated Press about the offer.
Why? Because that would be insane, assuming that the Senator’s remark is not just an unfunny joke.
As for the $5,000 “fine,” Newsweek reported back in 2021,
Human Smugglers Charging Up To $15,000 Per Person for U.S. Border Crossing
More recently (Feb. 2025), NBC-5 (Dallas) reported,
$18,000 to cross: Migrants tell Texas DPS cartels raising smuggling price
So, $5,000 represents a real bargain, in terms of price and safety, when comparted to the cartel-provided service offering. Why would we want to give up the hard-fought gains as the southern border to reinstitute amnesty? Talk about a false economy.
Perhaps Sen. Gallego should consult with his constituents back in Arizona. As John noted yesterday, Rasmussen Reports recently dug into the cross-tabs of their Presidential approval ratings. Rasmussen broke down the results by party, age, gender and ethnic background. You would expect that Trump’s supporters come primarily from Republicans, the middle-aged, and males. But the ethnic group with the most Trump supporters is Hispanics at 62 percent support.
The group most impacted by illegal immigration is the group most supportive of Trump and his policies.
