Overview
- A holiday-themed DHS video promotes the CBP Home app with the line, “Fly home for FREE and receive a $1,000 exit gift.”
- Eligible participants include non-violent individuals without criminal histories, people encountered by CBP, categorical parolees with expired status, and those whose TPS was terminated.
- DHS says it arranges and pays for travel through the app, processes the $1,000 after verified return, and can book departure within about 10 days if information is accurate.
- Immigrant advocates call the promotion inhumane, and a media analyst says the English-only, infomercial style appears aimed at political visibility rather than outreach.
- The ad follows Project Homecoming charter flights launched in May, new registration requirements, ICE fine notices numbering about 10,000, and reported forgiveness of certain civil fines for those who self-depart through the app.