The Trump administration has introduced a new initiative offering unaccompanied migrant children a $2,500 cash stipend to voluntarily return to their home countries. The payment is being offered as part of the “Family Assistance Reintegration Program” to minors aged 14 and older, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initially targeting 17-year-olds.
According to an internal notice, the one-time resettlement support will be provided only after an immigration judge approves the voluntary departure and the child is safely back in their country of origin.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defends the “strictly voluntary” program as an opportunity for children to return to their families with financial aid to “start fresh.”
However, the policy has drawn immediate, fierce condemnation from immigrant rights advocates and lawyers. Critics argue the substantial payment acts as a coercive “cash bribe for kids,” pressuring highly vulnerable minors in federal custody to abandon their legal rights to seek asylum and other humanitarian protections. They warn the move endangers children by encouraging them to return to the violence and persecution they fled.
