Trump Administration offer $1,000 to unauthorised immigrants to voluntarily leave the country
According to Homeland Security, self-deportation is still the most economical and secure method of leaving the country without being arrested.
New Delhi(India) May 6:President Donald Trump led US-administration on Monday announced that it will pay $1,000 to undocumented immigrants who will voluntarily return to their home nations, as part of its broader deportation efforts.
According to a news release from the Department of Homeland Security, it will also pay for travel expenses, and those who identify on the CBP Home app that they intend to return home will be "deprioritized" for arrest and deportation.
The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that, "If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest. DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.”
Despite the huge operational and budgetary requirements of such measures, Trump's campaign platform continues to place a major focus on immigration enforcement and the mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
On Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that its officers have deported almost 66,000 illegal immigrants in the first 100 days since Trump returned to the White House.
"We're just 100 days into this administration and thanks to President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is using every tool at its disposal to enforce our country's immigration laws and protect our communities," Acting ICE director Todd Lyons said.
The DHS calculates that it currently costs roughly $17,000 to arrest, imprison, and deport someone who does not have legal status.
The government said that the compensation and possible airfare for migrants who leave willingly would be less expensive than a deportation.
“The first use of travel assistance has already proven successful. An illegal alien that the Biden Administration allowed into our country recently utilized the program to receive a ticket for a flight from Chicago to Honduras,” the agency said.
There are many things about this most recent offer from Homeland Security that immigrants should be careful about, according to Aaron Reichlen-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, an organisation that supports immigrants.
He claimed that, particularly if they are already facing removal procedures, it gets worse for people to leave the country without pursuing their case in immigration court. According to him, migrants who are in removal proceedings and fail to appear in court may be automatically deported, and leaving the country is typically interpreted as giving up on a number of relief requests, including asylum requests.
In order to guarantee that those in immigration court face no consequences if they depart, Homeland Security is not suggesting that it is closely coordinating this drive to get migrants to self-deport with the immigration courts, he added.
The Trump administration has turned an app that the Biden administration used to allow almost 1 million migrants make appointments to enter the nation into a tool that helps migrants in returning home as part of its self-deportation campaign. Previously known as CBP One under the Biden administration, it is currently known as CBP Home.
According to Homeland Security, "thousands" of migrants have self-deported using the app so far.
Aadrika Tayal
What's Your Reaction?
