If you are Haitian and living in the United States right now, you have heard the message. It is on your phone, in your feed, and in the government’s own advertising: “leave on your own, take the money, and go — because if you don’t, they will find you. Download the app. Self-deport. Do it before it’s too late”.
I want to be direct with you, because you deserve the truth plainly: that message is designed to frighten you into making a permanent decision quickly, before you have had time to think, get advice, or understand your options.
Being afraid is understandable. But fear is exactly what this campaign is built to produce. Let’s look at what is actually happening, using numbers the government and major news organizations have put on the record.
Through a program the Department of Homeland Security calls Project Homecoming, DHS is offering people without legal status a $2,600 “exit bonus,” a free flight home, and forgiveness of certain fines if they use the CBP Home app to self-deport. Then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has paired that offer with a warning that those who don’t take it will be “found,” “arrested,” and never allowed to return. A tone embraced by the current DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Why the hard sell? Money.
By the government’s own accounting, it costs an average of $17,121 to arrest, detain, and remove one person. Independent estimates run higher. Many analysts put the real, all-in cost between $25,000 and $35,000 per person. DHS says self-deportation drops that cost to around $5,000, roughly a 70 percent saving. In other words, pressuring you to leave “voluntarily” is a budget strategy. It is cheaper for them to scare you out of the country than to come find you.
About 350,000 Haitians lost Temporary Protected Status when it ended on July 27, 2026, according to reporting from The Washington Post and others. That is a large, painful number, and I won’t pretend otherwise. Roughly a third of everyone who has lost TPS under this administration is Haitian, the Pew Research Center found, and ICE has stepped up monitoring in communities with large Haitian populations.
Now look at the pace of removal. Reporting indicates about 250 former TPS holders per week are expected on deportation flights. Sit with that arithmetic for a moment. Two hundred fifty a week is roughly 13,000 a year. Even if that pace held steady through the rest of the presidential term, into January 2029, the total would land somewhere in the tens of thousands, under one in ten of the 350,000. That is not a reason to relax, and it is certainly no comfort to anyone actually detained. But it tells you something important: the impression that they can round up everyone, all at once, tomorrow, is manufactured.
They cannot. The machinery is expensive, slow, and stretched—which is why they need you to volunteer.
Before anyone takes the “exit bonus,” they should know how it has worked in practice. Time, ProPublica, and The Guardian have all reported that many people who self-deported never received the money they were promised, or faced long delays. Some said agents used the stipend as bait — to get them to reveal their location or to leave without any benefit at all. And when DHS claims that 1.9 million people have “voluntarily self-deported,” remember that CBS News reported those figures have not been independently verified. The numbers are inflated to make the wave feel unstoppable. It is not.
Here is my advice.
Do not make an irreversible decision out of fear. Leaving the country is permanent. The offer that looks generous today can cost you a future you didn’t have to give up. Unless you decide on your own and you think it is the right thing to do at the right time.
Talk to a licensed immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative before you do anything.
Some former TPS holders have other paths- a pending asylum claim, a family petition, an adjustment of status- that they don’t realize they have. You cannot know your options until someone qualified reviews your specific case.
Only an immigration judge can order someone deported; your status today is not the end of the story.
Get your documents in order. Keep copies in a safe place. Make a plan with your family so everyone knows what to do and whom to call. Know your rights if someone comes to your door.
And be vigilant — not panicked. Verify what you hear. Don’t act on a rumor, a viral video, or a social-media post claiming the law has changed when it hasn’t.
Lean on your community, your church, and trusted organizations.
The next time you hear that ICE is arresting people in your community, remember who benefits from your fear. Stay calm. Stay focused. Stay informed. Keep your eyes open — and don’t hand them the decision they are trying so hard to frighten out of you.
This column reflects commentary and general information, not legal advice. Every immigration case is different. Please consult a licensed immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative about your own situation before making any decision.
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