WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview aired on Tuesday that he planned to roll out a new program offering money for immigrants in the country illegally to leave voluntarily.
Trump said such a “self-deportation program” would include some financial assistance and the prospect of re-entering the country later legally.
“We’re going to give them a stipend,” Trump told Fox Noticias’ Rachel Campos-Duffy, according to an official transcript of an interview taped on Monday.
“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.”
A White House spokesman said he had nothing to add to Trump’s comments.
Trump, a Republican, has vowed to deport record numbers of migrants in the U.S. illegally and has tested the bounds of U.S. law to increase arrests and deportations.
His administration has also pushed immigrants to assist in their own expulsion. Immigrants are being asked to signal their “intent to depart” using a U.S. Customs and Border Protection app called CBP Home.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Don Durfee and Lincoln Feast.)
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