President Trump's voluntary departure program is accelerating at a pace that could exceed 200,000 immigrants leaving the United States by year's end, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by news outlets.
Project Homecoming, the initiative's official name, has facilitated roughly 132,000 departures through mid-July and has another 70,000 applicants in process, according to figures shared with Axios. The program offers free travel arrangements and cash payments to unauthorized immigrants who agree to leave voluntarily rather than face arrest and deportation proceedings.
The incentive structure has evolved since launch. The initial offer was $1,000 per person, later increased to $2,600, and briefly reached $3,000 during the holiday season. At that cost, each voluntary departure runs approximately $2,500 in government expenses plus the stipend, according to DHS calculations. By contrast, forced deportations cost roughly $18,245 per case, making the voluntary approach substantially cheaper.
The program sits at the heart of the administration's broader immigration enforcement strategy, designed as a counterbalance to more aggressive enforcement tactics. Border czar Tom Homan described voluntary departure as "part of the plan from the very beginning," though the initial rollout moved slowly. In its first six months, Project Homecoming attracted only 24,000 participants as staff arranged travel documents and flights.
White House pressure dramatically shifted the pace. Internal sources reported daily calls from the West Wing and weekly principal-level meetings with Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller demanding faster processing. Officials were being pressed to move thousands through the system daily but were initially processing only dozens.
A major expansion came in August when a DOGE staffer proposed embedding case managers directly into ICE detention facilities. The rationale was straightforward: offer detained immigrants an immediate exit rather than keeping them locked up for the typical 50-day detention period. That intervention proved pivotal.
Case managers now operate in 40 ICE detention centers, and approximately half of all Project Homecoming cases now involve people already in custody. The result has been dramatic for detention operations. Immigrants choosing voluntary departure now spend an average of 17 days in detention compared to the standard 50, freeing up bed space in overcrowded facilities. For an administration pursuing mass deportation, bed space represents a critical bottleneck.
"For the first time, someone walks in and goes, 'Hey, who here just wants to go home?' And everybody's like, 'I want to go home," one source familiar with detention facility operations said, describing the immediate surge in voluntary departure requests once the option was presented directly to detainees.
The contractor running Project Homecoming, a company called Salus, said in a statement that it was "proud of the humane and dignified support" provided through the program. DHS has projected $2.5 billion in savings on removal costs attributable to the initiative's efficiency.
The nearly $600 million program is racing against a budget deadline. The current government contract runs out of funds by the end of August, and DHS is actively seeking bids for continuation. The agency did not clarify whether any service gap might occur if funding lapses during the transition period.
Some immigration experts have questioned the program's scope and priorities. The UN's International Organization for Migration, which runs resettlement programs globally and initially partnered with Project Homecoming, is no longer involved. Sources close to the effort say the program became narrowly focused on logistics and cost reduction rather than providing long-term support after deportees arrive in their home countries.
Author James Rodriguez: "What started as a curiosity has become a centerpiece of Trump's deportation apparatus, and the numbers are staggering enough that Congress should be demanding full transparency on where these people are going and what happens to them after they land."
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