THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION has said it will pay for the travel and give $1,000 to undocumented migrants who “self-deport” back to their home country.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that people who use an app called CBP Home to tell the government that they plan to return home will be “deprioritised” for detention and removal by immigration enforcement.

Secretary Kristi Noem said: “If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest.

“DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.”

The department said it had already paid for a plane ticket for one migrant to return home to Honduras from Chicago and said more tickets have been booked for this week and next.

DHS said that even with the payment of travel assistance and the stipend “it is projected that the use of CBP Home will decrease the costs of a deportation by around 70 percent.”

It said that the average cost currently to arrest, detain, and remove an undocumented migrant is $17,121.

President Donald Trump has made immigration enforcement and the mass deportation of immigrants in the US illegally a centrepiece of his campaign, but that is a costly, resource-intensive endeavour.

While the Republican administration is pushing Congress for a massive increase in resources for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department responsible for removing people from the country, it is also pushing people in the country illegally to “self-deport”.

With reporting from Press Association and PA.