The United States on Monday said that it would offer a $1,000 stipend and travel assistance to undocumented immigrants who elect to “self-deport” from the country.

“Self-deportation is a dignified way to leave the US and will allow illegal aliens to avoid being encountered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

It said that “any illegal alien who uses the CBP Home App to self-deport” would receive a stipend of $1,000, paid after their return to their home country has been confirmed.

The CBP Home App, or the Customs and Border Protection Home mobile application, allows undocumented immigrants or persons whose visa has expired or has been revoked to notify the US government of their intent to leave the country, “offering them the chance to leave before facing harsher consequences”.

The Department of Homeland Security also claimed that the stipend and potential airfare for migrants who voluntarily departed would cost less than an actual deportation by about 70%. “Currently the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove an illegal alien is $17,121,” it said.

It added: “The first illegal alien to utilise travel assistance has already returned to Honduras.”

The statement comes at a time when US President Donald Trump’s administration has undertaken a wider crackdown on undocumented immigration that includes mass deportations.

The US has deported 1.52 lakh persons since January 20, Reuters reported, citing data from the Department of Homeland Security. This figure was lower than the 1.95 lakh deported between February and April last year under former President Joe Biden.

“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said on Monday. “DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.”

The statement also said that “illegal aliens submitting their intent to voluntarily self-deport in CBP Home will also be deprioritised for detention and removal ahead of their departure as long as they demonstrate they are making meaningful strides in completing that departure”.

In April, Trump had said that the US would consider allowing migrants to return, according to Reuters. “If they’re good, if we want them back in, we’re going to work with them to get them back in as quickly as we can,” the news agency quoted him as saying.

Six hundred and thirty-six Indians had been deported from the US since January, when the Trump administration assumed office, the Union government had told Parliament in March.

Three hundred and forty-one were deported to India by chartered flights while many others were repatriated on US military aircraft. Two hundred and forty arrived on commercial flights and 55 on separate commercial flights through Panama.

Reports in January said that India was working with the Trump administration to deport around 18,000 undocumented or visa-overstaying Indian citizens from the US.