Trump team triples bonus to $3,000 for migrants who self-deport

According to the department, illegal immigrants who deport themselves will have their travel arranged using the CBP Home app, paid for, and will be eligible to be waived from any fines or civil penalties for not leaving the United States. The $3,000 salary is triple the $1,000 the department disclosed in May.

The policy announcement is part of a holiday campaign aimed at speeding up deportations. A post on the Department of Homeland Security’s X account warned people living illegally in the United States that they were “going home.”

“Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport, because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never come back,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

Since January 2025, 1.9 million undocumented immigrants have voluntarily deported themselves, and tens of thousands of them have used a Customs and Border Protection home, according to Noem. These numbers could not be independently verified. The app was created during the Biden administration for immigrants to schedule asylum interviews, but President Donald Trump’s team has renamed it and repurposed it.

Officials described the program as a more efficient alternative to costly arrests and deportations. Even increasing the rewards would save money for the government, which has estimated the average cost of arresting, detaining and deporting immigrants at about $17,000 per person.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the calculus would change with the salary increase.

Immigration lawyers and activists have raised doubts about the Trump administration’s claim that immigrants who leave voluntarily may be able to return legally. Bloomberg previously reported that in many cases, people who lived in the United States without legal status face an automatic ban that can last for years, for which waivers are typically not granted.

The salary increase comes because detentions and involuntary deportations did not meet the administration’s early target of one million people. Since taking office, the Trump administration has deported more than 261,000 people, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.

During the same period, ICE arrested more than 285,000 aliens accused of being in the country illegally or of deportation.

Officials have also taken steps to narrow legal immigration pathways. It announced that it would re-review the cases of all refugees resettled under former President Joe Biden and freeze their applications for green cards, and would consider including a country in the president’s wide-ranging travel ban, among “significant negative factors.”

The administration also expanded the travel ban, which initially included citizens of 19 countries, to include those from more than 30 countries.