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Trump is now working on plans to get the illegal aliens that Joe Biden allowed into the country out. One idea is to encourage them to leave the country voluntarily, or "self-deport." In order to do that, he’s considering a plan to give them a plane ticket and stipend in return for leaving.
He announced this plan in a recent interview with Fox News’ Rachel Campos-Duffy. He said, "We’re gonna give them a stipend. We’re gonna give them some money and a plane ticket, and then we’re gonna work with them—if they’re good."
According to former immigration official Art Arthur, who now works with the Center for Immigration Studies, facilitating self-deportations is something the U.S. has actually done before. He said, "It’s not that uncommon for the U.S. government to allow an individual to leave voluntarily and to pay for that ticket."
He went on to say that covering the cost of a ticket and even a stipend of a few hundred dollars would be a win-win, because that’s cheaper than the standard deportation process. According to Arthur, "We would draw down the unauthorized population in the United States, and we would save the money that we would otherwise spend on detention, prosecution, and removal."
Arthur also thinks that illegal aliens would wind up flocking to the program if it was actually offered by the Trump administration. He said, "Individuals don’t want to be deported; they don’t want to be detained. I actually think thousands, tens of thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands would take advantage of an offer like this and go voluntarily."