Credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection
President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has delivered on his core campaign promise of restoring America’s immigration system, but perhaps the most ingenious strategy has been his administration’s unprecedented self-deportation initiative, a cost-effective approach that’s already showing results while saving taxpayers millions of dollars.
Thousands of illegal immigrants have already used the new CBP Home app to self-deport, while border crossings and encounters have dropped by 95% compared to Biden-era peaks.
ICE arrests have more than doubled in 2025, with over 158,000 illegal aliens taken into custody, 75% of them criminal offenders, including more than 600 members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang.
ICE detention capacity has expanded from 41,500 to 54,500 beds, and the strategic use of military assets for deportation flights has increased efficiency while signaling a serious commitment to enforcement.
And as successful as the Trump administration has been with forced deportations, self-deportation costs taxpayers 70% less than traditional deportation methods.
The CBP One app, once used under the Biden administration as a tool to facilitate illegal entry, has been transformed under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem into a platform for facilitating self-deportation.
The app now offers illegal immigrants a $1,000 cash incentive upon confirmed departure, free travel assistance and documentation, forgiveness of failure-to-depart fines, potential future legal immigration opportunities, and de-prioritization for ICE enforcement actions.
The total cost of each self-deportation falls well below the $17,121 average cost of traditional deportations.
Secretary Noem explained the choice facing illegal immigrants clearly:
“The CBP Home app gives aliens the option to leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream. If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return.”
Trump’s approach goes beyond just offering incentives, it includes meaningful consequences through a comprehensive strategy.
The administration has launched a $200 million “Stay Out and Leave Now” campaign, making clear that voluntary departure is preferable to forced removal.
Project Homecoming represents a nationwide strategic effort that includes targeted enforcement through high-profile raids and deportations, legal pathway removal—such as the elimination of Temporary Protected Status for 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela—and international cooperation through a partnership with the UN’s International Organization for Migration to facilitate returns.
Even immigration policy experts acknowledge the unprecedented scale and innovation of Trump’s approach.
Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, noted that Trump’s self-deportation campaign operates “at a scale which probably has not been detected in our history.”
The deportations are already having a positive impact on the U.S. labor market.
According to recent labor data, the number of foreign-born workers in the workforce dropped by over one million from March to May 2025, coinciding with rising wages and a shrinking labor force in key sectors.
Perhaps most importantly, the campaign is changing behavior throughout immigrant communities.
Reports show families considering departure rather than living in fear of enforcement, exactly the deterrent effect the administration intended.
This behavioral shift marks a clean break from the Biden-era’s catch-and-release policies that encouraged illegal entry.
Other benefits include a reduced burden on immigration courts and detention facilities, freeing up resources for legitimate cases. More assets can now be focused on targeting serious criminals instead of processing endless asylum claims.
The irony is that media and political opponents of Trump’s immigration crackdown may actually be accelerating voluntary departures by amplifying coverage of enforcement actions, frightening illegal immigrants into self-deporting and discouraging others from attempting to cross the border illegally.
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