A savvy move to provide incentives in any given matter can be very effective. That’s a fancy way of saying, “If you offer to pay people, you can generally get them to do what you want.”

On Monday, Fox News’ Bill Melugin brought us the story of the Trump administration’s plan to offer illegal aliens a deal – a free plane ticket and a $1,000 check to leave the United States voluntarily. 

It might work.

FOX EXCLUSIVE: DHS will announce today that they will begin paying for the commercial flights of illegal aliens who self-deport from the U.S., & they will pay these aliens an additional $1,000 once they are confirmed to have left the country. DHS tells @FoxNews this will save…

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 5, 2025

Mr. Melugin’s post continues:

DHS tells @FoxNews this will save American taxpayers 70%, as it currently costs DHS, on average, over $17,000 to arrest, detain, and deport someone from the U.S., while paying for self-removal flights & the stipend is projected to cost just $4,500, and will be safer for ICE and preserve their resources. Illegal aliens must register on the CBP Home app and file their notice to leave the US in order to receive the financial assistance, and the stipend will only be paid once the alien is confirmed to have left the United States. DHS tells us any aliens who register to self deport will be immediately de-prioritized for ICE arrest and will maintain the ability to return to the U.S. legally in the future. DHS says they have already successfully tested out the financial assistance, recently paying for an illegal alien to fly back to Honduras from Chicago, with more tickets booked this week.

It’s an interesting notion. If the numbers are correct, every illegal immigrant who chooses to go home voluntarily saves the American taxpayer a nice chunk of cash. And a thousand American dollars would go a long way in much of Latin America, as well as in plenty of other places that people are coming from – places like Africa, for example.

There’s an added carrot: If they voluntarily self-deport, they have the option to come back legally at a later date. There is far too much obfuscation from the left on this issue; people who come to the United States legally, people who come here to work, to create value, and to become Americans, should be welcome.

Mr. Melugin concludes:

DHS Secretary @Sec_Noem statement to FOX: “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. This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens and is a 70% savings for US taxpayers. Download the CBP Home App TODAY and self-deport.”

It’s a great tweak to Joe Biden’s aged nose that the Trump administration is taking the very phone app that the Biden people cooked up to make it easier to enter and remain in the country illegally, and repurposing it to offer incentives to get these same people to leave.

Of course, the real problems, the goblins who came here to prey on American citizens, won’t be persuaded. But this move could free up some resources to more ably hunt the goblins down.