President Trump’s latest plan to deport migrants in the country illegally includes sweetening the pot with the offer of free money if they make their own arrangements to leave the country willingly.

The new initiative, announced by the Trump administration on Monday, would offer as much as $1,000 as well as “travel assistance” to illegal immigrants who use the CBP Home app to leave America on their own accord before they are arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Self-deportation is a dignified way to leave the U.S. and will allow illegal aliens to avoid being encountered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Even with the cost of the stipend, it is projected that the use of CBP Home will decrease the costs of a deportation by around 70 percent,” an announcement made by the Department of Homeland Security reads.

The current cost to arrest, detain, and deport just one migrant is estimated to be more than $17,000, the homeland security department estimates. DHS officials are calling the new offer an effective cost-cutting measure.

“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said in a statement. “This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens and is a 70% savings for US taxpayers.”

The offer of cash comes after the Trump administration in March began to start encouraging illegal aliens to self-deport, when the CBP One app was rebranded as the CBP Home app.

The online appointment app, used by nearly a million people since it was introduced in January 2023 by the Biden administration, allowed users to remain in the country for two years. Applicants were allowed to legally work under a presidential authority called “humanitarian parole,” which allowed migrants to stay for “urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit.”

The Trump administration summarily shut down the program and last month revoked the permissions of those who entered under the initiative.

“It’s time for you to abandon the United States,” the Department of Homeland Security told parolees in an email when it announced the change in rules. Those who received the notice in early April were urged to self-deport. “Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security,” DHS officials said.

Sweden has offered up to $1,000 for migrants who volunteer to leave since 1984. Late last year, however, the government increased the grant incentive to $34,000 for immigrants who return to their home country, with the new offer taking effect in 2026. 

America ran a self-deportation program, dubbed Operation Self Departure, in 2008 under which it offered incentives to nearly 500,000 illegal immigrants in five cities to leave the country, but the program had dismal results, with only eight people choosing to participate.