DHS pushes $915 million plan to encourage self-deportation for illegal immigrants
The initiative is part of the Trump administration's secure borders immigration plan. According to a new document shared internally within the Department of Homeland Security, the program has helped 72,000 people voluntarily leave the country this month.
Immigrants
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) prepared a $915 million incentive program and an app as key tools to get undocumented immigrants to self-deport from the country.
The initiative is part of the Trump administration's secure borders immigration plan. According to a new document shared internally within the Department of Homeland Security, obtained by CNN, the program has helped 72,000 people voluntarily leave the country this month.
"DHS has been consistently clear that those who have used the CBP Home app and utilized Project Homecoming are but a fraction of the those who have voluntarily left the country because illegal aliens know President Trump is enforcing our immigration laws," a DHS spokesman said in a statement, adding that each self-deportation with incentives costs thousands of dollars less than a traditional deportation.
What was the money spent on?
In addition, the program offered immigrants a $1,000 incentive, through the application, to be paid upon confirmation that they had left the country. Recently, that amount was increased to $2,600, according to CNN.
In that regard, the news outlet detailed that as of Dec. 1, the administration was recording the authorization of nearly 35,000 payouts to individuals who had registered as voluntary deportees, although only 17,406 had been completed as of that time, according to the affidavit from an executive of Salus Worldwide Solutions, which has a three-year contract to administer Project Homecoming.
Last year, the State Department explained that those who choose to self-deport would be put on a charter flight and not one from an ICE immigration enforcement operation. The department indicated that all participants were offered the same benefits as any illegal alien who self-deports using the "CBP Home" application.
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