WASHINGTON — A staggering 2.2 million illegal immigrants “voluntarily self-deported” since January of last year, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said.
“To celebrate one year of this administration, the U.S. taxpayer is generously increasing the incentive to leave voluntarily for those in this country illegally — offering a $2,600 exit bonus,” Noem announced.
“Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return.”
Previously, the Trump administration offered a $1,000 bonus for illegal immigrants to voluntarily leave the country.
Nearly 3 million illegal immigrants have been deported overall during President Trump’s first year in office, the Department of Homeland Security said.
The 2.2 million voluntary exits dwarf the 675,000 deportations through more aggressive means, such as being forced out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
To aid the self-deportation efforts, the Trump administration had repurposed the CBP One phone app last year, which was used under the Biden administration to schedule asylum appointments, into a self-deportation tool.
Noem claimed that “tens of thousands” have since used that reworked program.
“In the last year, fentanyl trafficking at the southern border has also been cut by more than half compared to the same period in 2024,” Noem crowed earlier this week. “The U.S. Coast Guard alone seized enough cocaine to kill more than 177 million Americans.”
“Meanwhile, we have saved taxpayers more than $13.2 billion here at DHS,” she went on. “Countless lives have been saved, communities have been strengthened, and the American people have been put first again.”
Over the past year, border crossings have plummeted dramatically. Last December, there were 10,000 encounters at the southwest land border, down from the 96,033 in December 2024, according to data from US Customs and Border Patrol.
In December 2023, there had been 301,981 border encounters.
Trump boasted about the progress his administration had made in reining in the chaos at the border and enforcing immigration laws on Tuesday while marking the one-year anniversary of his second inauguration.
“It’s been an amazing period of time,” Trump said Tuesday. “We’ve done more than any other administration has done by far.”
