Why not? I'm all for incentives set toward beneficial outcomes. And cost-savings, too .... assuming they materialize.
Throughout the last presidential campaign, as well as in 2016, Donald Trump promised a massive exodus of illegal aliens from the US. In both campaigns, Trump promised to focus on expelling more dangerous criminals first, but claimed that enforcement would prompt many to "self-deport." That seems to be working now more than in the first term, not to mention the near-complete shutdown of new border crossings in larger scale. However, Trump's efforts at accelerated deportations have run afoul of the federal judiciary, threatening to bring progress to a standstill.
The Department of Homeland Security has decided to apply carrot-side incentives along with stick-side disincentives to break the logjam:
The Department of Homeland Security said it has helped some migrants obtain flight tickets, so they can return to their native countries in the next two weeks. A migrant has already returned to Honduras using the self-deportation program to book a flight out of Chicago, the department added.
Those interested in participating in the self-deportation initiative are being instructed to use a government smartphone app now known as CBP Home — which the Biden administration previously used to allow certain migrants to enter the U.S. legally — to tell officials they plan to leave the country.
Eligible immigrants will receive both travel assistance and the $1,000 stipend, which DHS officials said will be paid after the U.S. government confirms they individuals have left the country.
Thus far it's off to a flying start, so to speak:
Migrants can verify their departure from the US using the CBP Home App, the agency said. DHS added that those who participate in this process will be deprioritized for targeting by immigration officials for detention and removal from the country, and that it “may” preserve the option for migrants to re-enter the US legally in the future.
At least one immigrant has already used the offer to return to Honduras, the agency said, adding that several other plane tickets were booked for this week and next week.
The legal incentive may outweigh the financial incentive. Getting caught sneaking into the country generally means that the perpetrator cannot apply for legal entry for at least several years. DHS and Trump had already set up the CBP Home app to reflect a kind of amnesty for those who used it to self-deport, although it's too soon to see whether DHS will honor that incentive down the road. One presumes that Trump would want to see self-deportations reach seven figures or so before the administration would even circle back on that consideration.
The financial incentives are new, and at least theoretically make fiscal sense. It costs a lot of money to deport someone; they argue the average amount per deportation is over $17,000. A plane ticket and a $1000 payment puts the cost for this program probably close to a tenth of that cost. If it means we're paying people to leave, it at least means we're paying a lot less to do so.
However, one has to wonder just how long the self-deported will remain outside the US. They might take the money and run, but then come back just as soon as the check clears. Trump's new enforcement policies have restored a lot of the disincentives for illegal entry, but the incentives to cross still exist -- good-paying jobs, more stable environments, and so on. We might just be funding their next return trip, especially if we elect a less border-security-oriented president in 2028.
Furthermore, one wonders whether the self-deporters would get to keep the money. Their home governments might seize it, or the human-trafficking cartels might decide to go after their former "clients." The end of this trafficking industry will no doubt have the cartels and coyotes looking for new ways to extort income from unfortunates in Central and South America. Setting up a subsidy stream may make them targets all over again.
Still, this is probably worth a try. The costs alone for forced deportation, not to mention the impacts on communities in the US, justify the creations of incentives for those here illegally to rectify the situation on their own. And it has one other benefit: anyone complaining about getting arrested and ejected had a better option at hand, one that would have been facilitated by the US government, not to mention rewarded.
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