US offers $1,000 stipend, travel assistance to undocumented immigrants who ‘self-deport’

The United States on Monday said that it would offer a $1,000 stipend and travel assistance to undocumented immigrants who elect to “self-deport” from the country.

“Self-deportation is a dignified way to leave the US and will allow illegal aliens to avoid being encountered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

It said that “any illegal alien who uses the CBP Home App to self-deport” would receive a stipend of $1,000, paid after their return to their home country has been confirmed.

The CBP Home App, or the Customs and Border Protection Home mobile application, allows undocumented immigrants or persons whose visa has expired or has been revoked to notify the US government of their intent to leave the country, “offering them the chance to leave before facing harsher consequences”.

The Department of Homeland Security also claimed that the stipend and potential airfare for migrants who voluntarily departed would cost less than an actual deportation by about 70%. “Currently the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove an illegal alien is $17,121,” it said.

It added: “The first illegal alien to utilise travel assistance has already returned to Honduras.”

The statement comes at a time when US President Donald Trump’s administration has undertaken a wider crackdown on undocumented immigration that includes mass deportations.

The US has deported 1.52 lakh persons since January 20, Reuters reported, citing data from the Department of Homeland Security. This figure was lower than the 1.95 lakh deported between February and April last year under former President Joe Biden.

“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said on Monday. “DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.”

The statement also said that “illegal aliens submitting their intent to voluntarily self-deport in CBP Home will also be deprioritised for detention and removal ahead of their departure as long as they demonstrate they are making meaningful strides in completing that departure”.

In April, Trump had said that the US would consider allowing migrants to return, according to Reuters. “If they’re good, if we want them back in, we’re going to work with them to get them back in as quickly as we can,” the news agency quoted him as saying.

Six hundred and thirty-six Indians had been deported from the US since January, when the Trump administration assumed office, the Union government had told Parliament in March.

Three hundred and forty-one were deported to India by chartered flights while many others were repatriated on US military aircraft. Two hundred and forty arrived on commercial flights and 55 on separate commercial flights through Panama.

Reports in January said that India was working with the Trump administration to deport around 18,000 undocumented or visa-overstaying Indian citizens from the US.

US freezes future grants to Harvard University

On Monday, the US Department of Education told Harvard University that it was freezing billions of dollars in future research grants and other aid until the institution concedes to several demands from the Trump administration, Reuters reported.

In a letter, US Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon told Harvard University that it must address concerns about antisemitism on campus and school policies that considered a student’s race.

She added that the university had to also address complaints from the administration that it had abandoned its pursuit of “academic excellence” while employing relatively few conservative faculty members.

“This letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the federal government, since none will be provided,” Reuters quoted McMahon as saying in the letter.

In response, Harvard University said that the letter doubled down on demands that would impose “unprecedented and improper control” over it and made new threats to “illegally” withhold funding for lifesaving research.

“Harvard will also continue to defend against illegal government overreach aimed at stifling research and innovation that make Americans safer and more secure,” the news agency quoted a university spokesperson as saying.

In April, the Trump administration froze more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University after the institution said it would defy demands to overhaul its policies and curb activism on campus.

The action came hours after Harvard rejected a sweeping list of requirements from the White House ostensibly aimed at combating antisemitism and reforming university governance, admissions and hiring practices.

The government had said that nearly $9 billion in total grants and contracts are at stake if Harvard did not comply.

Among the demands were that the university should report students to federal authorities who are “hostile” to American values, ensure departments are “viewpoint diverse” and allow an external, government-approved party to audit programmes that “fuel antisemitic harassment”.

Other measures included banning face masks on campus, ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and withdrawing recognition from student clubs accused of promoting criminal activity, violence or harassment.

The US government had threatened to ban Harvard University from enrolling international students unless the institute submits the students’ disciplinary records and information about their participation in protests.

The White House has argued that universities have allowed antisemitism to flourish during protests against Israel’s war on Gaza and US support for it. “Harvard had in recent years failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment,” the administration said in a letter on April 11.

Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly targeted elite universities over campus protests, diversity programmes and free speech issues. Harvard is the seventh major institution whose funding has been paused by his administration. The others are Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern.

Columbia was the first to be targeted and later agreed to several government demands after $400 million in federal funding was pulled. Education Secretary Linda McMahon had said then that “universities must comply with all federal anti-discrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding”.

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