
Trump spends $200 million on self-deportation campaign as immigration raids lag
Faced with the logistical and financial limits of mass deportations, the Trump administration has turned to a $200 million media campaign aimed at persuading undocumented immigrants to leave the US voluntarily.
Branded “Stay Out and Leave Now,” the effort combines the ad blitz with a self-reporting departure app launched this week, and warnings from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that those who don’t leave will be caught and permanently barred from returning.
“Leave now. If you don’t, we will find you and we will deport you. You will never return,” Noem warns in a domestic ad. In an international version, she tells would-be migrants not to “even think about it. Let me be clear, if you come to our country and break our laws, we will hunt you down.”
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The Trump administration’s promised mass arrest and deportation effort got off to a swift and costly start after his inauguration in January, with high-profile raids across the country and multiple deportation flights — some on military aircraft — to Central and South America and India. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has recorded roughly 33,000 arrests since then. But the pace has slowed, leading to multiple leadership shakeups at the agency. Trump is now urging Congress to approve more funding to carry out the crackdown.
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The push comes as unauthorized crossings at the southern border continue to decline, with thousands more troops deployed as part of a military buildup. In