News Brief
Trump Administration Plans $2,500 Payouts To Migrant Teens For Voluntarily Returning To Home Countries
Donald Trump (File Photo)
The Trump administration is reportedly planning a new initiative that would pay $2,500 to unaccompanied migrant teenagers who voluntarily return to their home countries.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the scheme will begin with 17-year-olds and the payment will be issued once a judge approves the request and the minor is repatriated, Bloomberg reported.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Office of Refugee Resettlement, said the programme is meant to provide unaccompanied children an option to choose their future.
Officials emphasised that participation would remain voluntary and framed the initiative as a way for minors to make informed decisions about returning to their countries of origin.
Immigration lawyers and child rights advocates have voiced alarm that the plan might eventually include children as young as 14.
They warned it could pressure minors into abandoning asylum bids or other protections, undermining long-standing legal safeguards that shield children from deportation before adulthood.
Wendy Young, president of the legal aid group Kids in Need of Defense, denounced the proposal as an “egregious abuse of power.”
Young further stated that “every child in US custody must have access to the rights and protections guaranteed under US law,” calling on the Department of Homeland Security to stop the programme without delay.
Under US law, immigrant children enjoy broader legal protections than adults, supported by a decades-old court settlement limiting government detention.
Yet, despite these safeguards, many minors still navigate immigration proceedings without legal counsel.
HHS data from August showed roughly 2,000 unaccompanied children were being housed in shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
