US President Donald Trump has vowed to succeed where Britain failed by handing cash and a one-way plane ticket to illegal immigrants who choose to “self-deport”. And in a sensational softening of his notoriously hardline stance he promised to return those who are “good” to help make America great again.
Trump, who won last year’s presidential election largely on a campaign to carry out mass deportations, made the remarks during an appearance on Fox Noticias a show dedicated to issues affecting the Hispanic community aired on American multinational conservative news and political TV channel Fox News.
During the interview he said his administration is focused on getting “murderers” out of the country. But for others Trump said he would implement “a self-deportation programme.” Although he offered little detail he said illegal immigrants would be given their airfare and a bundle of cash to quit the country.
He said: “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.”
Fox Noticias interviewer Rachel Campos-Duffy, married to US Transport 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 although he cannot vote the man would have supported Trump. She then played a clip in which he said he agrees that if someone commits a crime, they should be returned to their country or origin – including himself.
Trump said that was the sort of individual he wants to help turn America’s economic and social fortunes around.
He said: “I look at this man. I say, this is a guy that we want to keep. I’ll probably take heat for saying it.”
He then asked if the man was supposed to be deported and answered his own question: “No, he didn’t say that. Good. I don’t think he’s in any danger of it.”
Trump also said he wants to help hotels and farms – historically vocations that use illegal immigrants – get the workers they need.
Ultimately, he said, he wants workers who are in the US illegally to leave and come back with legal permission, but did not outline any steps to do that.
Trump said: “We’re doing self-deportation and we’re going to make it comfortable for people. And we’re going to work with those people to come back into our country legally.”
In 2022, the Tory government said that any asylum seeker entering the UK illegally from a safe country like France could be sent to Rwanda. They would have their asylum claims processed there, rather than in the UK.
If successful, they could be granted refugee status and allowed to stay in the landlocked east-central African country.
If not, they could apply to settle in Rwanda on other grounds or seek asylum in another “safe third country”. None would be able to apply to return to the UK.
The government claimed the plan would deter people from arriving in the UK on small boats across the English Channel, which was one of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s five unbreakable pledges to the public.
But the scheme was a spectacular – and costly – failure and was scrapped after Labour won last July’s general election and scrapped it.
Incoming Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Rwanda scheme cost taxpayers £700m and only four people had been removed to the country voluntarily.
The figure included £290m in payments to the Central African country, the cost of chartering flights that never took off, detaining hundreds of people and then releasing them, as well as paying for more than 1,000 civil servants to work on the botched idea.