The Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion says it is go­ing to pay im­mi­grants in the Unit­ed States il­le­gal­ly who’ve re­turned to their home coun­try vol­un­tar­i­ly $1,000 as it push­es for­ward with its mass de­por­ta­tion agen­da.

The De­part­ment of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty said in a news re­lease Mon­day that it’s al­so pay­ing for trav­el as­sis­tance and that those peo­ple who use an app called CBP Home to tell the gov­ern­ment that they plan to re­turn home will be “de­pri­or­i­tized” for de­ten­tion and re­moval by im­mi­gra­tion en­force­ment.

“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,” Sec­re­tary Kristi Noem said.

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump has made im­mi­gra­tion en­force­ment and the mass de­por­ta­tion of im­mi­grants in the U.S. il­le­gal­ly a cen­tre­piece of his cam­paign, but that is a cost­ly, re­source-in­ten­sive en­deav­our.

While the Re­pub­li­can ad­min­is­tra­tion is push­ing Con­gress for a mas­sive in­crease in re­sources for the Im­mi­gra­tion and Cus­toms En­force­ment de­part­ment re­spon­si­ble for re­mov­ing peo­ple from the coun­try, it’s al­so push­ing peo­ple in the coun­try il­le­gal­ly to “self-de­port”. —WASH­ING­TON (AP)

_______

Sto­ry by RE­BEC­CA SAN­TANA | As­so­ci­at­ed Press