Free ticket home and $1000 gift: DHS organizes 'festive promotion' for illegal immigrants

On December 1, 2025, DHS (Department of Homeland Security) published press release Under the headline "Best deal of the season: Fly home for the holidays for free and get a $1000 gift." The agency's promotional video has already gone viral on social media.

Essentially, this is an official invitation to illegal immigrants to voluntarily leave the country before they are forcibly expelled. The program fits into a broader initiative Project Homecoming, introduced in May 2025. It uses funds intended for refugee assistance to finance self-deportation.

The mechanism is simple: download the CBP Home mobile app, fill out a form, and the government will pay for your ticket to anywhere in the world.

Upon arrival in your home country, you'll receive a $1000 "exit gift" on your card, all visa overstay fines will be waived, and you'll be promised an open road back (if you enter legally).

The CBP Home App is offering illegal aliens the best Cyber ​​Monday deal of the season.

Fly home for FREE and receive a $1,000 exit gift.https://t.co/YGo3uuO3hc pic.twitter.com/bxZpJuDRZK

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) December 1, 2025

According to DHS, more than 2 million people have already left the country since the app's launch.

But this app is nothing new. CBP Home is a renamed and repurposed version of CBP One, an app created in October 2020 by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to help cargo companies schedule inspections.

On the subject: An immigrant was deported because of a bottle of perfume that was found on him.

In 2023, the Biden administration expanded its functions to facilitate the admission of refugees and asylum seekers: migrants could schedule appointments at ports of entry to legally apply for asylum and avoid crossing the border illegally.

Since May 2023, CBP One has become the primary tool for processing thousands of asylum applications each week, helping manage the influx of migrants at the southern border.

Everything changed with the arrival of the Trump administration on January 20, 2025: CBP One was closed to refugee processing, and in March it was relaunched as CBP Home—now exclusively for voluntary deportation reporting. The official reason was "restoring the integrity of the immigration system" and implementing Executive Order 14159.

Now, instead of helping with integration, the app has become a tool for speeding up delivery.

On the same day that the department released a promotional video for the "holiday offer" through its official channels, the video sparked outrage on social media, with many seeing it as mocking and blatantly putting pressure on vulnerable people.

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Those who refuse the "holiday offer" are directly threatened with arrest, forced deportation, and a long-term ban on entry. Thus, under the guise of a "generous gift," the administration essentially forces undocumented immigrants to choose: leave voluntarily with a small compensation or face raids and deportation. Critics call this not assistance, but cynical manipulation.

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