Trump makes shocking offer to 'illegal immigrants' who come forward to deport themselves
Donald Trump has offered an usual incentive to immigrants in America.
It's not new information that Trump is clamping down on immigration in the US, and just last month, he announced his plans to revoke the legal status of more than 500,000 immigrants.
Humanitarian parole was brought in by the Biden administration and allowed migrants and their immediate family members to fly into the US if they had American sponsors and remain for two years, under a temporary immigration status known as parole.
The scheme was aimed at Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan citizens wanting to relocate to the States. Their temporary legal status was set to be revoked on April 24, but a judge has since blocked this and ordered that the termination of people's parole should be interviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Advert
In the wake of the judge's recent ruling, Trump is now attempting to have people 'self-deport' themselves and is offering a cash incentive and plane tickets to anyone willing to do so.
The president, who campaigned on a pledge to carry out mass deportations, said in a taped interview with Fox Noticias that aired on Tuesday that his administration is focused on getting 'murderers' out of the country.
For others in the US illegally, he said he is going to implement 'a self-deportation programme'. Trump offered few details about the plan, including timing, but said the US would provide immigrants with air fare and a stipend.
"We’re going to give them a stipend. We’re going to give them some money and a plane ticket, and then we’re going to work with them — if they’re good — if we want them back in, we’re going to work with them to get them back in as quickly as we can," he said.
Fox Noticias interviewer Rachel Campos-Duffy, who is married to transportation secretary Sean Duffy, played Trump a clip of a Mexican man who, she said, arrived in the US illegally more than 20 years ago and has children who are American citizens.
It is not clear if the man now has legal permission to be in the country, but Campos-Duffy said the man claimed that even though he cannot vote, he would have supported Trump.
She played a clip of the man saying he agrees that if someone commits a crime, they should be returned to their countries — including himself.
"I look at this man. I say, this is a guy that we want to keep," Trump replied. "I’ll probably take heat for saying it."
Topics: Donald Trump, News, Politics, US News, Joe Biden
Niamh Shackleton