72,000 Join as DHS Nears $1 Billion Plan to Push Immigrants to Self-Deport

(UNITED STATES) — The Department of Homeland Security is promoting Project Homecoming as a nationwide self-departure drive for undocumented immigrants, using the CBP Home mobile app as the main way people enroll and confirm that they have left the country.

DHS has cast the effort as both an enforcement measure and a public-facing technology program, arguing that it moves people out of the United States more cheaply than standard deportation proceedings. As of March 18, 2026, internal DHS documents show that 72,000 people have successfully left the U.S. under this program.

A DHS spokesperson said on March 18, 2026, “DHS has been consistently clear that those who have used the CBP Home app and utilized Project Homecoming are but a fraction of those who have voluntarily left the country because illegal aliens know President Trump is enforcing our immigration laws.”

Project Homecoming now sits near the center of the administration’s broader immigration push. DHS presents the program as a large-scale answer to the high cost and slow pace of traditional removals, rather than as a limited pilot.

That framing has drawn attention to the money behind it. The program is part of a $915 million incentive plan, and a reported $220 million to $230 million international advertising campaign has become a political issue of its own.

Criticism has focused on the ad spending, including scrutiny of a no-bid contract awarded to political allies and questions over oversight. The spending has mattered politically as much as administratively because it tied the program’s rollout to leadership disputes at the top of DHS.

On March 5, 2026, President Trump announced that Secretary Kristi Noem would resign, effective March 31, after bipartisan criticism over the $220 million ad spending and her testimony that the President had personally approved the expenditure. That clash pushed the promotional side of Project Homecoming into the same debate as the enforcement policy itself.

DHS has paired those spending arguments with a message about cost. The department says self-departure under Project Homecoming costs approximately $5,100 per person, compared with $18,245 per person for traditional deportation.

Those figures are central to the administration’s public case for the program. Benjamine Huffman, acting undersecretary for management, said in a sworn statement in March 2026 that it offers a “more efficient pathway to return undocumented immigrants than regular deportation proceedings.”

“The program provides individuals with a clear and dignified pathway to return to their home countries voluntarily, reducing the need for detention and enforcement actions,” Huffman said.

Participation figures also show the program has reached far beyond immigrants living freely in U.S. communities. Of the 72,000 people who left under Project Homecoming, approximately 37,281 were already in ICE detention when they signed up.

That means more than half of the people counted so far entered the program from custody, not from outside the detention system. The numbers suggest DHS is using Project Homecoming both as a tool for people facing arrest in the community and as a release valve inside detention operations.

Secretary Kristi Noem linked the current program to a much broader tally of departures. In an official statement dated January 21, 2026, she said, “Since January 2025, 2.2 million illegal aliens have voluntarily self-deported and tens of thousands have used the CBP Home program. The U.S. taxpayer is generously increasing the incentive to leave voluntarily—offering a $2,600 exit bonus. 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 offer to migrants has grown since the program’s early phase. DHS is now offering an exit bonus of $2,600, up from an initial $1,000 in early 2025.

The package also includes free flights and travel assistance back to a person’s country of origin. DHS has promoted forgiveness of civil fines tied to failure to depart as another incentive.

One of the most disputed parts of the program concerns future legal return. The administration has suggested that self-deporting may improve later immigration prospects, but lawyers have warned that any such possibility is limited and not guaranteed.

That dispute matters because leaving the United States can still carry penalties under existing federal law. Lawyers say departure may trigger 3-year or 10-year reentry bars, even for people who accept money and travel help through Project Homecoming.

CBP Home sits at the center of how the program works. The app is a rebranded version of the Biden-era CBP One and now serves as the main procedural gateway for Project Homecoming.

DHS uses the app for registration and for confirmation of departure. That makes CBP Home more than a communications tool; it acts as the gatekeeper for entry into the program and for the government’s record that a participant has actually left.

Its role in the process means access and recordkeeping can have immediate effects for migrants. If enrollment and departure confirmation depend on one app, usability and accurate data become part of the enforcement system itself.

DHS has described that digital structure as part of a more orderly departure model. At the same time, legal advocates have raised due process concerns, saying the app can steer people toward giving up immigration hearings in exchange for money and travel assistance.

Organizations including the American Immigration Lawyers Association have warned that the program may pressure people to waive rights without fully understanding the consequences. Those concerns have become sharper as DHS targets groups already facing changes in legal status.

The department has specifically urged former Temporary Protected Status holders to use the app to avoid fast-track removal. That outreach has included 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans whose status was revoked in 2025.

For migrants in those groups, the choice can carry long-term consequences beyond the immediate flight home. Accepting Project Homecoming benefits does not erase the immigration penalties that can follow a departure, lawyers say, and it does not settle whether someone will later qualify for lawful return.

The administration’s language around self-departure has also kept politics at the forefront. Officials have framed the initiative as a way to restore enforcement while lowering taxpayer costs, and they have coupled the financial argument with warnings about arrest for people who remain.

That combination has made Project Homecoming both a budget argument and a public deterrence campaign. The ad blitz, the app, and the incentive payments all serve the same goal: persuading or pressuring undocumented immigrants to leave without the government carrying out every removal through standard proceedings.

DHS says that model reduces detention and enforcement costs. Yet the participation figures show detention still plays a large role, since approximately 37,281 of the 72,000 participants were already in ICE detention when they enrolled.

That split has shaped the debate over what the program really is. Supporters inside the administration describe it as a lower-cost self-departure system; critics point to the detention numbers and legal warnings as evidence that many participants may be making the choice under direct government pressure.

Noem’s statement captured the administration’s harder edge. Her warning that people who do not leave “will never return” added an enforcement threat to the department’s financial pitch.

Huffman’s sworn statement used softer language, emphasizing efficiency and dignity. Together, the statements show how DHS has tried to market Project Homecoming in two ways at once: as a less expensive alternative for the government and as a managed exit path for migrants.

Because the terms and official wording can change, DHS and CBP materials remain the main records for checking the current rules and claims. Readers can track updates through the DHS newsroom, CBP enforcement statistics, and CBP Home app information.

Those records matter because the program combines spending, detention, app-based processing, and immigration consequences in one system. For migrants weighing whether to self-deport through Project Homecoming, and for lawmakers judging the administration’s claims, the stakes run from a $2,600 exit bonus to the possibility of years-long bars on coming back.