DHS has a nearly billion-dollar plan to get immigrants to ‘self deport.’ 72,000 people have signed up so far

By Audrey Ash, Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump has heralded a $915 million incentive program and app as key tools to get undocumented immigrants to voluntarily leave the country, part of a broader push his administration credits with getting 2.2 million people to “self-deport.”

But a new document shared internally within DHS and reviewed by CNN shows that the program has helped 72,000 leave the US as of this month.

The majority who signed up were already in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, the document shows.

Homeland Security officials have not publicly released detailed data on how many people have left the US under the new program, which the administration argues saves money by slashing the cost of deportations. The plan, called Project Homecoming, offers stipends of up to $2,600 and free flights to immigrants to return home. Many others have left on their own without using the app, the agency said in a statement.

“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,” said a DHS spokesperson in a statement, adding that each self-deportation with incentives costs thousands less than a traditional deportation.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Some experts questioned the efficacy of the program, arguing that many of those who have chosen to leave would have likely done so anyway without the government’s intervention.

“They’re trying to claim credit for those people who are leaving but it’s not obvious to me that those people would’ve stayed in the absence of this financial incentive,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute.

It’s unclear what metric DHS has used to claim that 2.2 million people have self-deported as of January. That number likely includes thousands who have left voluntarily without engaging with Project Homecoming – either because they didn’t want to notify the government of their movements or because they were unaware of the program.

While the financial incentives are new, voluntary departure, which allows noncitizens to leave the country without the penalties associated with a removal order, already existed as a legal option under previous administrations.

More than 35,000 immigration court cases have ended in “voluntary departure” for the fiscal year of 2025, up from around 9,000 the previous fiscal year, according to data from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. It’s unclear how many of the people involved in those 35,000 cases used Project Homecoming.

“Every year, there’s hundreds of thousands of people who leave the United States on their own, voluntarily, for various reasons,” Bier said. “Before this app, that was a zero cost to the government. Nothing was being expended on people leaving the country.”

‘Book your free flight right now’

When the White House announced Project Homecoming last May, Trump hailed it as a powerful new tool. “To all illegal aliens: book your free flight right now,” he urged in a video posted to Truth Social.

The administration took to the airwaves in multimillion-dollar ad campaigns to encourage anyone in the US illegally to leave and launched a social media blitz that’s included an array of posters marketing free flights home. “Home is just a few clicks away!” said a recent X post by DHS.

Initially, the program offered immigrants a $1,000 stipend to be paid after confirmation through the app that they had left the country; that was recently increased to $2,600.

In the months since its rollout, DHS has not released detailed data for how effectively the program has helped people to voluntarily leave. In January, DHS said nearly 100,000 users had engaged with the program’s app, CBP Home, though it didn’t say how many of those users self-deported.

That’s left some White House allies frustrated with the lack of transparency, including a leader at the Heritage Foundation.

“To give the American public confidence that DHS is indeed conducting mass deportations, the department should regularly report the number of removals … as well as self-departures, including timely and untimely departures, and use of the CBP Home app,” wrote Lora Ries, the director of Heritage’s Border Security and Immigration Center.

Sworn statements filed in court in December offered the first on-the-record details about Project Homecoming’s performance.

As of December 1, the government had authorized nearly 35,000 stipends to individuals who had registered as self-deported, although only 17,406 had been completed at the time, according to the sworn statement of an executive from Salus Worldwide Solutions, which holds a three-year contract to run Project Homecoming.

A senior official for the Department of Homeland Security offered similar numbers in a separate sworn statement that month. In addition to more than 38,380 who had voluntarily left the US under the program, nearly 28,600 others were in “various stages awaiting departure,” said Benjamine Huffman in his capacity as acting undersecretary for management at DHS.

Huffman described the program as a more efficient pathway to return undocumented immigrants than regular deportation proceedings.

“The program provides individuals with a clear and dignified pathway to return to their home countries voluntarily, reducing the need for detention and enforcement actions,” he said.

The numbers of self-deportations have increased since December to nearly 72,000 now, the new document reviewed by CNN shows. The document shows that 37,281 of those who have self-deported through the program were already in ICE detention at the time.

While some undocumented immigrants have been apprehensive about the app and notifying the federal government on their status and whereabouts, others said the incentives were useful.

Lisette, who spoke on condition that only her first name be used out of safety concerns, told CNN she departed the US last May for Honduras on the heels of her husband’s detention and deportation.

“That day they separated my family. My kids had never been separated from him,” she told CNN in Spanish, saying she made the decision to self-deport at the suggestion of a federal immigration officer. She signed up via the CBP Home app.

After multiple calls and correspondence with the federal government, Lisette departed the US with her family. She received a $1,000 stipend via a prepaid Mastercard.

A Brazilian national who spoke with CNN similarly used the CBP Home app. She said she was offered a range of dates to fly back to Brazil, as well as instructions for departing from her local airport. She received the $1,000 stipend directly to her bank account. Recipients are required to pick up payment within 60 days, according to a DHS letter shared with CNN.

Generally, the app is meant for those who choose to notify the government of their departure. Immigrants in detention, however, are either provided documents by authorities to self-deport or to request voluntary departure before an immigration judge, according to Dara Arroyo Longoria, a North Carolina immigration attorney who has worked with clients in both scenarios.

The administration’s push for people to self-deport has been relentless, according to attorneys, who have seen flyers urging people to leave included in immigration documents. A flyer shared with CNN includes a QR code to the CBP Home app and lists benefits, like leaving “on your terms,” and consequences, including “immediate deportation.”

“They’re having to choose between a prolonged detention and spending a lot of money to fight their case. Or take voluntary departure, get money for leaving, and potentially not to have to pay for their flight home,” said Arroyo Longoria, who also noted that immigrants often don’t know about potential penalties if they accept, like yearslong bans on re-entering the US.

“I’m worried people are taking that as legal advice from the government without understanding the consequences,” Arroyo Longoria said.

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