Key Takeaways
🔥 Taxpayer Whiplash – Citizens voice outrage as government fast-tracks $1,000 checks and flights for non-citizens but still hasn’t issued DOGE dividend payments.
🛫 CBP Home App Relaunches – DHS repurposes former Biden-era app to manage voluntary self-deportation under the Trump plan.
📱 Immigration Tech Pivot – More than a million used the original CBP One app to enter; now it’s being used to leave.
By Samuel Lopez – USA Herald
WASHINGTON (USA Herald) – In a bold and controversial move, the Trump administration has unveiled a program that will offer $1,000 to individuals residing in the United States illegally—provided they voluntarily return to their country of origin.
According to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press release issued Monday, this “self-deportation” initiative also covers airfare and transportation. The new plan leverages a revamped version of the Biden-era CBP One app—now renamed CBP Home—which immigrants can use to schedule their departure and reduce their chances of arrest or detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. “We are offering financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to your home country.”
The first reported payment was made to a migrant in Chicago who chose to return to Honduras. According to DHS, more plane tickets have already been booked for others in the coming weeks.
A Strategy Rooted in Economics—But for Whom?
The program is being framed by the administration as both a humanitarian alternative and a fiscal necessity, given the rising costs of detention, transport, and removal operations. Yet critics say the program’s economics only deepen public concern.
“How is it that the federal government can mobilize thousands of dollars per person—nearly overnight—for individuals who are in the country unlawfully, but it can’t seem to cut even a single DOGE dividend check for the American taxpayer?” asked a frustrated veteran in Bakersfield, California.
The DOGE program, promoted heavily on social media as a cost-savings initiative leveraging artificial intelligence to stop fraudulent payouts (including notorious examples like fake 350-year-old recipients receiving monthly SSI payments), was said to be saving taxpayers billions. Proponents of the program, including Elon Musk, and the President himself, floated the idea that those savings would be redistributed to hardworking Americans. Figures of up to $5,000 per person were mentioned in public forums, but to date, no such distributions have occurred.
Mass Deportation by Incentive
The Trump administration, which made immigration reform and border control a pillar of both of Trump’s presidential campaigns, appears to be experimenting with a new approach: incentivized self-deportation.
Instead of relying solely on arrests and detentions, DHS hopes to scale its removal efforts through voluntary participation. The rebranded CBP Home app is part of that push. DHS claims “thousands” of migrants have already engaged with the app to arrange their own return.
What About Visa Overstays?
The DHS did not clarify whether the $1,000 incentive directly applies equally to those who have overstayed visas, such as H-1B workers, students, or those with lapsed tourist permits.
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