Self-deportation poses legal risks for immigrants who accept offer of cash, airfare

Immigrants who take up the Trump administration’s offer of cash and free airfare for people who self-deport could make legal reentry to the U.S. lengthy and difficult, if not impossible, advocates warned this week.

They recommended that immigrants speak with an attorney before taking up the government’s inducement of $1,000 and airfare to their countries of origin.

“Anyone who is finding themselves in a moment of uncertainty should always speak with a qualified immigration attorney,” said Unai Montes-Irueste, a spokesman for People’s Action Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group.

But Montes-Ireste and others also said they anticipate that many immigrants facing President Donald Trump’s harsh deportation crackdown may find the self-deportation offer tempting.

The Trump administration offered the financial incentive on Monday and described self-deportation as a way for migrants to preserve their ability to legally return to the U.S.

Sophia Genovese, an attorney for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, warned that immigrants who self-deport could face high barriers to legal reentry to the U.S.

“If people have an active case with the immigration court and they leave, that will result in an in absentia removal order,” Genovese said. The order “is a deportation order that would be entered because they failed to appear at their next immigration court hearing,” she said.

A deportation order carries a 10-year bar of return to the U.S. “and it will create barriers for people seeking to return through some other lawful pathway,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Justice public affairs office did not respond this week to requests for comment sent to the agency’s media inquiry site.

Trump told reporters Monday that immigrants who self-deport and leave the U.S. might have a chance to return legally “if they’re good people” and “love our country.”

Trump made immigration enforcement and mass deportation a centerpiece of his campaign but so far has struggled to fulfill his promise of deporting at least 1 million people in the first year of his current term.

The Department of Homeland Security has repurposed a U.S. Border Patrol app, CBP Home, that allows immigrants to obtain the $1,000 stipend and a flight to their home countries. The app was created by the Biden administration to allow people to track their immigration cases.

DHS said in a news release that people who use the app will be “deprioritized” for detention and removal by immigration officials.

“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

Genovese said flyers promoting the CBP Home app have turned up at immigration courts around the U.S., including the El Paso Immigration Court, which hears all New Mexico immigration cases.

The flyers have created the appearance that immigration courts and judges support the self-deportation program, she said.

“This is leading a lot of community members, a lot of immigrants, to believe that the odds are stacked against them,” she said. “If a judge is encouraging the ability to self-deport, why would an immigrant believe that they have a fair shot at winning asylum or some other permanent status?”

Genovese urged immigrants considering the offer to consult with an immigration attorney or a qualified immigration representative, a non-attorney who has credentials to argue cases in immigration courts.