Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security is promising a Christmas “gift” of $3,000 and a free plane ticket to encourage people in the U.S. illegally to leave the country before the New Year.
As Noem, 54, tries to boost numbers using its struggling self-deportation platform, the Homeland Security secretary on Monday touted the temporary holiday special, which is three times larger than the previous offer.
Urging “illegal aliens” to leave voluntarily via the CBP Home app—or face arrest and removal— she told Fox News show Fox & Friends, “If you voluntarily want to go home now… we will give you $3,000."
Noem—nicknamed “ICE Barbie” for her made-for-TV “cosplay” approach to immigration enforcement—wrote on X: “This Christmas season… illegal aliens who self-deport using the CBP Home App can receive a $3,000 exit bonus."
She added that people ”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 not return."
DHS says the $3,000 payment is available to eligible participants who register and depart by Dec. 31, 2025, and is paid once the government confirms the individual has left. Its previous self-deportation “bonus” was $1,000.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said the move was “a good sign of a campaign with largely poor results,” but added, $3,000 was “still an insultingly small sum for people to uproot their lives here after potentially decades.”
The increased offer is part of DHS’s effort to drive more voluntary departures through CBP Home, a rebranded version of the Biden-era CBP One platform that signals intent to depart and, if approved, gives travel assistance and financial support.
DHS argues the stipend is cheaper than a full enforcement case, which it has estimated at roughly $17,000 per removal.
But the app’s take-up has been a problem for months. Internal DHS figures obtained by The Atlantic showed that CBP Home logged roughly 35,000 “exits” over nine months, despite a government advertising blitz costing more than $200 million.
The Atlantic calculated the effective cost at about $7,500 per departure once the ad buy, airfare, and payments are included.
The Atlantic also noted that, by DHS’s own estimates, only about 2 percent of people who “self-deported” used the app—meaning most left without the taxpayer-funded flight or cash.
In the face of this data to the contrary, DHS has promoted enormous “self-deportation” totals. It has claimed 1.9 million undocumented immigrants have “voluntarily self-deported” since January.
However, its figures have not been independently verified, and DHS—which is struggling to hit Donald Trump’s ambitious 3,000 daily deportation target—has not released a public breakdown showing how many received travel or stipends versus those who left on their own.
The program has also drawn scrutiny over whether promised money reaches people at all. As reported by The Guardian, some migrants who were promised earlier incentives said they never received them, amid complaints about opaque rules and implementation problems.
Noem defended the agency’s efforts in a statement Monday.
“In less than a year, President Trump has delivered some of the most historic and consequential achievements in presidential history—and this Administration is just getting started," she said.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are making America safe again and putting the American people first. In record-time we have secured the border, taken the fight to cartels, and arrested thousands upon thousands of criminal illegal aliens. In President Trump’s first year, DHS has removed more than 622,000 illegal aliens and 1.9 million illegal aliens have self-deported. Though 2025 was historic, we won’t rest until the job is done.”
