Tipsheet

Trump’s DHS Pays Illegal Immigrants to Leave — Critics Ignore the Cost of Letting Them Stay

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  December 25, 2025 7:00 PM

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE revealed earlier this week that they're giving illegal immigrants a lucrative incentive to leave our country voluntarily.

On December 22, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced a program that would give illegal immigrants a one-time payment of $3,000 if they self-deported. That's a $2,000 increase from the $1,000 incentive the Trump administration has been offering since the start of his second term.

"Well, it's home for the holidays season so, you know, not only are we returning those kiddos back to their families that Biden lost, we also are saying that if you voluntarily want to go home now to your country, if you're in this United States of America illegally, we will give you $3,000 through the holidays to send you home," Noem said in a Fox News interview. "We will buy you a ticket, give you $3,000 to go home, and that includes people that have not been detained, maybe have interacted with us, are detained, and don't have criminal charges against them." 

"Raise your hand, we'll help you get home, we'll facilitate it, and you might get the chance to come back to this country the right way someday," Noem added. "If you wait until we interdict you and detain you, and arrest you, and have to deport you ourselves, you'll never get the chance to come back. So go on the CBP home app, and get the information, and we'll make sure you get home in time for Christmas."

ICE also dropped a festive ad about the offer, one that featured Santa donning some ICE gear.

"Avoid ICE Air and Santa's Naughty List!" the social media post read. "Self-deport today with the CBP Home app, earn $3,000 and spend Christmas at home with loved ones. Holiday incentive is valid through the end of 2025."

But some find this problematic, and wonder why we're spending this money "rewarding" illegal immigrants.

"Can you imagine if Joe Biden started rewarding illegal immigrants with $3,000 checks on their way home? Oh how it would be mocked! Noem takes $$ from you and sends it to illegal immigrants b/c she cares more about population purity than any other value."

What a load.

Joe Biden rewarded millions of illegal immigrants with far more than that, on a daily basis, and let them stay here. It costs American taxpayers at least $150 billion annually to house, feed, and educate illegal immigrants.

Whatever we spend to deport them will pale in comparison to the vast sums of money we'd pay to keep them here.

FEMA even used money to put illegal immigrants up in fancy hotels while kicking North Carolinians displaced by hurricanes out of their hotels into the winter weather.

This mess was created by the Biden administration, and the Trump administration is cleaning up the mess.

That's something one social media user pointed out.

"She's busy fixing the mess the last administration put us in. Funny how detractors say nothing about four years of open borders, 300k lost children, and hundreds of dead illegal aliens trying to get across the border at the hands of cartels. Noem has the fortitude to take that on," one social media user wrote.

This is true. The Biden administration tried to create a mess so catastrophic that it would be impossible for the next administration, Democrat or otherwise, to fix it. Of course, we all know Kamala Harris would've continued the Biden-era policies and made things even worse.

Fixing the immigration problem is hard because Democrats made it hard.

But Bier doubled down, writing, "No personal responsibility. Always blaming others for your ineptitude, failures, and lack of principle. Lots of lies. No leadership."

No, this is what leadership and responsibility look like. And this is exactly what we voted for.