WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States has tripled its stipend offer to migrants who choose to "self-deport" from the country by New Year's Eve to 3,000 U.S. dollars, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said.
The stipend, along with a free flight back to migrants' home countries, will be provided to those living in the United States illegally who sign up to leave by the end of the year, the DHS said earlier this month.
"Using the CBP Home app also qualifies recipients for forgiveness of any civil fines or penalties for failing to depart the country," it said.
The app is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) mobile application designed "to incentivize the voluntary self-departure of aliens illegally in the United States."
"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 not return," the DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on X.
The DHS in May set the stipend at 1,000 dollars, noting that the amount is far less than the roughly 17,000 dollars required to "arrest, detain and remove" someone without legal status.
U.S. President Donald Trump has made mass deportations a priority in his second term, targeting those he claims entered the country illegally under the previous administration.
According to the DHS, the United States has recorded 605,000 deportations and 1.9 million self-deportations under its enforcement operations since Trump returned to office in January 2025. ■
