On Monday 5 May 2025, the Trump administration announced that it had launched a scheme which involves paying immigrants $1,000 to leave the US. It’s been made aggressively clear that one of Donald Trump’s primary goals during his second term is to eradicate immigrants from the country—with the Republican president pursuing numerous incredibly ruthless policies.

According to The Independent, the Department of Homeland Security has referred to this new effort as “travel assistance,” detailing how it is a part of the government’s plans to encourage immigrants to leave the country of their own accord instead of waiting for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to begin deportation proceedings.

In a press release, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem deemed the travel assistance a “historic opportunity,” going on to say that self-deportation was a “dignified way to leave the US.” Noem confirmed that the scheme had already begun coming into effect, explaining that “an illegal alien that the Biden Administration allowed into our country recently utilised the program to receive a ticket for a flight from Chicago to Honduras.”

If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest.

DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.

This is… pic.twitter.com/OFSPMkk3jf

— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) May 6, 2025

“Even with the cost of the stipend, it is projected that the use of CBP Home will decrease the costs of a deportation by around 70 percent. Currently, the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove an illegal alien is $17,121,” the statement continued.

The system uses the app CBP Home, where migrants can register their upcoming travel out of the country.

As expected, MAGA enthusiasts expressed their delight with this decision on X, praising Trump and his administration for their swift work:

Trump giving illegals options.
GITMO
Alcatraz
El Salvador
Self Deportation #TheFive pic.twitter.com/jvNqP2Wk80

— Ronnie Spangler (@Mar4L) May 5, 2025

BREAKING 🚨 Trump said the new self deportation Program will allow illegals to receive money and go on a beautiful plane ride BACK to their Country 👏

Trump is working overtime to get them OUT pic.twitter.com/9a5Tv8P9tn

— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) May 5, 2025

In other news, Trump has also announced plans to reopen Alcatraz prison, utilising part of the San Francisco Bay building as a place to house vicious and violent repeat criminal offenders. Writing on X, the president noted: “We will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our country illegally. The reopening of Alcatraz will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.”

REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ! For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate… pic.twitter.com/u1jOCMXeW5

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2025

Experts have already begun coming out in droves, claiming that the prison, commonly referred to as “the rock” and visited by millions of tourists every year, is completely unsuitable for housing prisoners. Hugh Hurwitz, who served as acting director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons between May 2018 and August 2019, told the BBC: “To be frank, at first I thought it was a joke. It’s not realistic to think you can repair it. You’d have to tear it up and start over. There’s no security upgrades. No cameras. No fencing. You can’t run a prison.”

So, there we have it. Two very different policy proposals, each with a myriad of problems attached. And, in typical Trump fashion, both yielding to the president’s complete lack of common sense or empathy for humanity.