On Monday, the first charter flight conducted by Homeland Security as part of “Project Homecoming” took off from Houston, taking 64 migrants from Honduras and Colombia back to their home countries.
President Trump signed an executive order launching the project, designed to incentivize self-deportations by undocumented immigrants, earlier this month. People in the country illegally who use a government app to plan their departure will receive financial and travel assistance to return home. Once their return has been confirmed, these migrants will receive a $1,000 stipend. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the plan “the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the U.S. to avoid arrest.”
But this program is not as simple as it sounds.
The most obvious problem with Project Homecoming is that there is no law from Congress authorizing payments to undocumented immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security cannot unilaterally make such huge financial commitments. The lack of statutory authority will probably doom this program in the courts. While there is one law on the books that permits the use of government funds to deport “any alien who falls into distress” and is “desirous of being so removed,” it says nothing about providing deportees with cash stipends after they are home.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the average cost of arresting, detaining and deporting one person is $17,121. Project Homecoming, the department estimates, would decrease the costs of a deportation by around 70 percent.
If that sounds like a good deal, consider that our undocumented population is about 11 million. If just 100,000 people took the government up on their offer, that means the U.S. would be paying out $100 million to people who entered the country without authorization. At a time when the government is threatening funding for everything from the National Institute of Health to public television to the IRS, this seems like a huge ask from the public.
This program is not a good deal for the undocumented, either. The American Immigration Council reports that 80 percent of undocumented migrants have been here over 10 years. These people gave up everything in their countries of origin to start all over in the U.S. Many risked their lives to get here, fleeing persecution or paying smugglers thousands of dollars to help them get across the border.
It defies logic to think that migrants would upend their lives again to return to a place they left years ago, on the promise of a thousand dollars.
The key word here is promise. Because this program is not law, there is nothing to stop the government from simply deporting people who sign up for it. There is certainly no guarantee that people will receive their cash stipend once they are out of the country. It’s no wonder that the American Immigration Lawyers Association calls this offer “a deeply misleading and unethical trick.”
Homeland Security said in statement that, “Participation in CPB Home Self-Deportation may help preserve the option for an illegal alien to re-enter the U.S. legally in the future.”
This assertion is deceptive. Under existing law, most undocumented people who leave the U.S. are barred from re-entry for at least 10 years. Any undocumented person considering taking advantage of what the government calls a “historic opportunity” ought to be aware that it could lead to worse outcomes than if they remain here without papers or contest their deportation in immigration court.
True, the president was elected, in part, on a promise of mass deportations. But conservatives won’t like the idea of what they may see as rewarding people for breaking the law. Liberals will be suspicious of the program itself, and question whether the administration can be trusted.
This misguided idea smacks of political desperation. Despite enlisting federal agencies to crack down on undocumented immigrants, conducting workplace raids and sending deportees off to El Salvador, so far the administration is not living up to its promise of record deportations. Analysis by the Migration Policy Institute finds that the administration is on track to deport fewer migrants than Joe Biden did during his final year as president.
Meanwhile, polls show that the public is souring on the president’s immigration agenda. An April CNN poll found that 52 percent of Americans think that Trump is going too far with his deportations. Perhaps now is the time for the administration to consider targeted enforcement measures that go after serious criminals, not ordinary people. This would be a productive use of government resources that would still allow the president to pursue his immigration agenda.
“Project Homecoming” deserves to be viewed with great skepticism. Offering undocumented migrants a cash stipend to leave the country is neither sound policy nor smart politics. And with this administration’s antipathy toward migrants, it could well be a trap with life-altering consequences.
Raul A. Reyes is an attorney and contributor to NBC Latino and CNN Opinion.
