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Trump launches ‘self-deportation’: $1,000 to migrants leaving the US

Plan aims to save on deportation costs. Understanding underway with Rwanda for forced repatriations, after agreement with El Salvador

US President Donald Trump has announced a new plan to incentivise the voluntary exit of irregular migrants from the country. The strategy, dubbed ‘self-deportation’, involves giving $1,000 to those who decide to voluntarily repatriate, using a specific government app developed to assist with travel preparations.

‘We will give each person a certain amount of money and a ticket to go back to where they came from. If they do, we will cooperate with them and one day maybe they can return if they deserve it. If they don’t, they will be deported and never have a chance to return,’ Trump said during a meeting with the media at the White House.

The plan was also outlined by the Department of Homeland Security, according to which the aim is to cut the costs of forced deportation, estimated at around $17,000 per migrant between arrest, detention and repatriation. Using the application, migrants will be able to receive logistical assistance, including the necessary documents and the purchase of tickets. The process is expected to take about three weeks. Those who report their intention to leave the country via the app will also be given a lower priority on the ICE agency’s arrest lists.

Trump also accused the Biden administration of allowing the entry of ‘at least 21 million people, including millions of criminals’, denouncing the difficulties in removing them due to the limits imposed by federal judges: ‘With 5 million hearings there would be no country left’.

In parallel, Washington is initiating international agreements for the forced deportation of migrants. After the 6 million dollar deal with El Salvador for the transfer of hundreds of migrants considered members of terrorist gangs to the Cecot prison, talks are underway with Rwanda to sign a similar agreement. This was confirmed by Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe, according to whom the talks are still ‘in the early stages’.

Rwanda, already known to have signed agreements with the United Kingdom, Israel and Denmark in the past, could thus become a key junction in the anti-immigration strategy of the current US government. The previous agreement with London, signed in 2022 with Boris Johnson, cost over 839 million euros, but was blocked by the British Supreme Court and eventually annulled by the Labour government of Keir Starmer.

The renewed collaboration between Kigali and Washington is also part of a broader geopolitical context, with the United States engaged in mediating in the conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, an issue on which American diplomacy is trying to exert increasing pressure.

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