(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a “holiday deal of a lifetime for all illegal aliens still in the United States,” encouraging them to use the CBP Home App to self-deport.
“The CBP Home App is offering illegal aliens the best Cyber Monday deal of the season. Fly home for FREE and receive a $1,000 exit gift,” DHS said.
The CBP Home App is a repurposed phone application the Trump administration launched in the spring after it terminated a Biden administration CBP One App. The CBP One App was implemented in January 2023 to make 1,000 daily appointments to usher in foreign nationals who otherwise would have been denied entry into the U.S. under federal law, The Center Square reported.
“The CBP Home App offers those in this country illegally a fantastic gift this holiday season: a free flight home, a $1,000 gift, and the potential opportunity to return to America the right, legal way,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “Your choice is simple: Choose self-deportation and reap the rewards, or stay here and continue breaking our laws, which will lead to you being arrested and deported. Make the right choice for you and your family this Christmas and join the 2 million illegal aliens who have already left the country: Download the CBP Home App today.”
DHS also published a short video that sounds and looks like a 1990s infomercial with elevator music encouraging illegal foreign nationals to use the app and self deport.
The CBP Home App is offering illegal aliens the best Cyber Monday deal of the season.Fly home for FREE and receive a $1,000 exit gift.https://t.co/YGo3uuO3hc pic.twitter.com/bxZpJuDRZK— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) December 1, 2025
Self-deportation using the CBP Home App “is the best gift that an illegal alien can give themselves and their families,” DHS says. “It’s a fast, free, and easy process: Just download the app, fill out your information, and DHS will take care of the rest – including arranging and paying for your travel back home.”
Once foreign nationals have confirmed they’ve returned to their country, DHS processes the $1,000, it says.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem first announced the stipend and taxpayer-funded self-deportation plan in April after the Trump administration reached agreements with multiple countries to accept their citizens being removed from the U.S., The Center Square reported.
To quickly facilitate removals, DHS began offering $1,000 stipends and U.S. taxpayer funded flights to eligible non-violent foreign nationals. They include those without criminal histories, who were encountered or apprehended by CBP or Border Patrol agents at a port of entry or between ports of entry, categorical parolees whose legal presence in the U.S. expired or will soon expire, and whose Temporary Protected Status was terminated, CBP explains.
In May, DHS launched Project Homecoming, using chartered flights to return individuals and families, including young children, to their home countries. They received travel assistance, a $1,000 stipend, “and preserved the possibility they could one day return to the United States legally,” The Center Square reported.
Using CBP Home qualifies foreign nationals to also have any civil fines they’ve incurred related to being in the country illegally forgiven. This year, the Trump administration began requiring all illegal foreign nationals in the U.S. to register with the federal government in accordance with federal law.
Those who don’t and who fail to self-deport face fines: up to $500 for each illegal attempt; up to $998 a day for those who won’t comply with a federal immigration judge’s removal order; up to $9,970 for those who fail to honor a voluntary departure order, The Center Square reported.
Within months of enforcing the law, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had issued 10,000 fine notices, which has only gone up.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration estimated that nearly one million foreign nationals were released into the country illegally through the CBP One app. In April, they were notified that their parole status had been terminated and instructed to the leave the U.S., The Center Square reported.
So far, more than two million have used CBP Home to self deport. That’s up from 1.6 million who had by October, The Center Square reported.
