U.S. taxpayers will be footing the bill for illegal foreign nationals to self-deport, according to President Donald Trump, who also said he wants to deport U.S. citizens who he calls “home grown criminals.”
Trump’s announcement comes after he and other Republicans heavily criticized former President Joe Biden and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for using federal and commercial flights to transport illegal foreign nationals into the U.S. on the taxpayers’ dime.
After Trump announced his massive deportation plan earlier this year, he also announced that his administration reached agreements with multiple countries to accept their citizens being deported from the U.S. and they agreed to pay for their transportation.
In February, deportations of violent Venezuelan nationals began, with flights paid for by Venezuela, The Center Square reported.
At a recent cabinet meeting, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said DHS was continuing to encourage illegal foreign nationals to use the CBP Home App to register to self deport and thousands already had.
But DHS was also “working on the resources and funding to buy them a plane ticket to send them home,” she said. At the time, it remained unclear what resources and funding she was referring to and who would be footing the bill.
She also said that after having discussions with officials in El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico and others, that these countries were considering setting up programs to support the return of their citizens – with the understanding that they could come back to the U.S.
“So, when they get there, they’ll have housing and food assistance and so making sure that these folks have the opportunity to go home so that they can get the chance to come back to America is important,” she said.
Trump responded by saying that part of the goal of self-deportation was to have some of those same foreign nationals return to the U.S. “We’re going to work with people [who illegally entered the country] so that if they go out in a nice way and go back to their country, we’re going to work with them right from the beginning point, trying to get them back in,” he said, The Center Square reported.
On Tuesday, he told Fox Noticias that U.S. taxpayers would also be footing the bill.
“We want to do a self-deportation program,” he said, which will include a way for them to return to the U.S.
Instead of expediting their immigration claim with an immigration judge and processing them while they are still in the country, the administration is going to use taxpayer dollars to help them return to their country of origin and then come back to the U.S., he said.
The program will first include giving illegal foreign nationals a U.S. taxpayer-funded stipend and plane ticket to return to their country of origin, he said.
“We’re going to give them a stipend. We’re going to give them some money and a plane ticket,” Trump said. “And then we’re going to work with them, if they’re good, we’re going to work with them to get them back in as quickly as we can.”
When asked if violent U.S. citizen criminals could also be deported, he replied, “we are looking into it. I would love to do that.”
He said U.S. citizens who would fall into this category are those he calls “home grown criminals. The ones that grew up and something went wrong and they hit people over the head with a baseball bat and push people into the subways. We are looking into it.”
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled the Trump administration could continue to deport violent Venezuelan gang members. However, judges in district courts are ruling against his deportation programs in lawsuits filed in several states.
It’s unclear if any U.S. president has ever attempted to deport a U.S. citizen for any reason. Any attempt to do so would likely be challenged and determined by the U.S. Supreme Court.
