The US will pay $1 000 to illegal immigrants who agree to voluntarily return to their countries.
This is stated in a statement from the US Department of Homeland Security.
The Department of Homeland Security also said it would cover travel expenses. In addition, immigrants who use the CBP Home app to notify the government of their intention to return home will be removed from priority detention and deportation.
“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and least expensive way to leave the United States and avoid arrest. The Department of Homeland Security is now offering illegal immigrants financial assistance for travel and a one-time payment to return home through the CBP Home app,” said Secretary Christy Noem.
The agency added that even with the $1 000 payment, it is projected that using CBP Home will reduce deportation costs by approximately 70%. Currently, the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove an illegal alien is $17,121.
Trumpʼs immigration policy
On the first day of his presidency, Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting the issuance of American citizenship documents to children born in the United States to parents who are either illegally in the United States or in situations where the mother is temporarily in the United States, for example, on a visa, and the father is not a citizen.
And the next day, he signed an executive order closing the countryʼs southern border, that is, with Mexico, to "illegal immigrants" and ordering the deportation of those who entered the United States illegally from Mexico.
The United States subsequently suspended a number of programs that allowed immigrants to temporarily settle in the country. In particular, the Uniting for Ukraine program, which allowed Ukrainians to enter. The decision will block the entry of immigrants fleeing some of the most unstable and dangerous places in the world. In addition to Ukraine, the programs offered temporary protection to immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela.
And at the end of March, Trump stripped 530 000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans of their legal status, which allowed them to legally reside in the United States.
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