DHS offers $3,000 'holiday stipend' for undocumented immigrants to leave

Theresa Braine, New York Daily News on Dec 22, 2025

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is offering undocumented immigrants who voluntarily leave the country a $3,000 “holiday stipend,” billing it as “the best gift that an illegal alien can give themselves and their families.”

DHS shared an Instagram post with a banner declaring “Limited Time Offer” in all caps across the top of a photo of a hand holding a phone with the CBP Home app on its screen. In the background is a decorated Christmas tree overlaid with text urging readers to “until the end of the year, take advantage of a $3,000 bonus to head home for the holidays!”

Underscoring the push is a message from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that also states U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill, which includes a free flight.

“During the Christmas Season, the U.S. taxpayer is so generously TRIPLING the incentive to leave voluntarily for those in this country illegally — offering a $3,000 exit bonus, but just until the end of the year,” Noem said in a statement. “Illegal aliens 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 never return.”

The money is triple what the Trump administration was previously offering to those who leave the U.S. voluntarily.

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