Trump administration to pay $1,000 to undocumented immigrants who self-deport

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.”

The announcement comes as the number of deportations has remained stagnant during President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. One of the president’s key campaign promises was that he would enact mass deportations as soon as he took office.

DHS did not immediately respond to questions about how the funds would be provided or what proof would be required to show the person had returned to their home country.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in late March that 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,” she said. “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.”

In a press release, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said self-deportations are “the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest.”

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.

DHS has declined to say how many unauthorized immigrants have used the app so far to self-deport.

According to Appfigures a company that tracks app downloads, CBP Home app has recently been downloaded about 1,500 times per day. Since the start of 2025, the app was downloaded about 300,000 times according to the company’s CEO Ariel Michaeli.

In March, the Trump administration repurposed the Biden-era CBP One app that allowed migrants to enter the U.S. legally as asylum-seekers, changing it into the CBP Home app. This version of the mobile application has a self-deportation reporting feature.

The Trump administration has spent $200 million in revamping the app and creating an accompanying advertising campaign featuring Noem to promote the app’s use.

The ads, which have aired in English and Spanish across the U.S. and Mexico, encourage immigrants who are not legally present in the U.S. to leave the country.

As part of their announcement Monday, DHS said that undocumented immigrants who “submit their intent to voluntarily self-deport in CBP Home will also be deprioritized for detention and removal ahead of their departure as long as they demonstrate they are making meaningful strides in completing that departure.”

The agency also said that self-deportation through the app “may help preserve the option for an illegal alien to re-enter the United States legally in the future,” echoing key points Noem touts in her ads.

Immigration experts and advocates have previously warned of Noem’s self-deportation message and the possibility of being able to legally return to the U.S.

“The operative word in that quote from the secretary is ‘may,’” Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst with the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, told NBC News in March.

“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,” Heidi Altman, the vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy organization, told NBC News in a statement in March. “Forcing or coercing people into leaving their homes and their loved ones carries political, moral, and economic costs.”