64 Migrants Return To Colombia & Honduras Under Trump’s Self-Deportation Program, ‘Project Homecoming’

In early May, President Donald Trump signed the executive order “Project Homecoming,” the country’s first self-deportation program.

“Project Homecoming” consists of government-funded flights and offers $1,000 to any illegal immigrant who is willing to self-deport. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has also stated that anyone willing to self-deport also has the possibility to return to the U.S. legally someday.

On Monday, the first flight of “Project Homecoming” departed from Texas, carrying 64 illegal immigrants and U.S. citizen children and stopped in both Honduras and Colombia. There were 19 children on board, at least four U.S. citizens due to birthright citizenship.

This program is part of Trump’s hope and promise to increase deportations. When Trump announced the executive order, he stated that he believed this program would be able to save billions of dollars for taxpayers. The DHS has estimated that this will be 70% cheaper for taxpayers than the current cost of over $17,000 per deportation.

“Project Homecoming” works through an app called CBP One. During the Biden administration, Customs and Border Protection used the app to schedule asylum seekers’ arrivals in the country. Now, the app is used as an incentive for illegal immigrants to self-deport.

Despite this accelerated push for deportations as well as new incentives such as “Project Homecoming,” the number of deportations, for example, the number of Hondurans that have been deported from the country, is below that of last year’s number at this point during the year.

Experts don’t expect many people to self-deport from the country, but there are still individuals who would do so either because they feel their time in the U.S. is limited or because they are having difficulties finding work.

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Article by Sherry Chen