The Feds Are Offering Migrants Cash to Self-Deport. Lawyers Call These Incentives Misleading.

The Department of Homeland Security’s new initiative to pay migrants for self-deportation is troubling not for what it offers, but for what it conceals. On paper, the promise of a stipend, waived fees, and the chance to return legally may sound like a humane alternative to detention and forced removal. In reality, immigration law does not support many of these guarantees, meaning the campaign risks misleading vulnerable people into making choices that could permanently close the door on their future in the United States.