TPS migrants told apply to stay or leave US, offered more than $2,000 help

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said that migrants in the U.S. on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will be offered a plane ticket and more than $2,000 if they self-deport. Mullins said in an interview with CNN's State of the Union on Sunday that migrants on TPS should either apply for permanent status or "we'll help you get back to your country." He added: "We will actually give you a plane ticket plus roughly $2,100 to help you reestablish when you get there. But temporary status…is NOT permanent status."

On Customs and Border Protection (CBP)'s HOME: Assistance to Voluntarily Self-Deport website, the financial incentive has been listed at exactly $2,600. DHS confirmed via email to Newsweek that the department is offering $2,600 to migrants who self-deport, an initiative that first came into place in January 2026.

Seeming to respond to these comments, Mullin took to X to say: "Let me be ABUNDANTLY clear: Temporary Protected Status is just that: TEMPORARY. Democrats tried to turn this into a defacto amnesty program. President Trump put a STOP to it. If you are in the country without status, you are here illegally. Illegal aliens have two choices—they can either accept a $2,600 stipend and a flight home to self deport, or they will be removed."

Former White House adviser Steve Bannon ripped Mullin, asking where the buses are to deport people back to Haiti. "This is the problem, there's no sense of urgency," Bannon said, saying it is "unbelievable." Bannon also called Mullin a "total, complete disaster".