Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) introduced an immigration proposal to counter President Donald Trump’s new self-deportation initiative.
Gallego suggested a system where certain illegal immigrants would pay a hefty fine and be granted a temporary work visa instead of accepting a one-time cash offer to leave the country.
“Why don’t we make them pay a $5k fine, go through a background check and give them a work visa for a few years, renewable with good behavior,” Gallego posted on X.
His suggestion came shortly after the Department of Homeland Security announced a new policy offering $1,000 to illegal immigrants who voluntarily leave the U.S on Monday.
The payment, according to DHS, will be issued once migrants confirm their departure using the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home app.
“Self-deportation is a dignified way to leave the U.S. and will allow illegal aliens to avoid being encountered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” the DHS stated in a release.
The department also said individuals showing progress in their voluntary departure would be deprioritized for detention and removal.
The Democratic senator’s counterproposal quickly sparked online discussion.
One user questioned the fairness of the plan, asking, “You’re telling people who are following the legal path to citizenship that you want illegal immigrants to pay $5,000 to skip the line—even though they broke the law. Got it.”
“Work visa is not [citizenship],” Gallego shot back. When another user argued that the fine should be larger, the Arizona lawmaker responded, “It can be higher. It just needs to work able.”
Meanwhile, President Trump addressed the federal government’s plan, noting that those who choose to self-deport would be rewarded with a comfortable return journey.
“What we thought we’d do is a self-deport, where we’re going to pay each one a certain amount of money, and we’re going to get them a beautiful flight back to where they came from,” Trump said Monday.
TRUMP ON OFFERING ILLEGALS $1K TO SELF-DEPORT: “We’re going to pay each one a certain amount of money & we’re going to get them a beautiful flight back to where they came from.” pic.twitter.com/OMnysPK7Od
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 5, 2025
He clarified that there would be a limited window of time for illegal immigrants to participate.
If they complied, “we’re going to work with them so that maybe someday, with little work, they can come back in.”
Though Trump made it clear that reentry would depend on their character and behavior.
“And if they’re not, they won’t, but it will give them a path to becoming, you know, to coming back into the country,” Trump added.
Those failing to leave within the prescribed timeframe, however, would result in forced removal.
“If they miss that limit, they’re going to be taken out of our country,” he said, without offering a route for return.
The president also criticized the judicial system for interfering with immigration enforcement.
He highlighted the difficulty of implementing mass deportations due to legal challenges from lower courts.
“It’s a very difficult thing with the courts because the courts have all of the sudden, out of nowhere, they’ve said, ‘Maybe you have to have trials.’ We’re going to have five million trials? Doesn’t work … you wouldn’t have a country left.”
Trump specifically referenced the Alien Enemies Act, which his administration has attempted to invoke to remove criminal gang members who entered the country illegally.
Recent rulings have obstructed those efforts, including one from a federal judge in Texas who barred deportations of gang-affiliated migrants under that law.
Just days earlier, a judge in California blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to end taxpayer-funded legal counsel for migrant minors facing deportation.
“Hopefully the Supreme Court will save it … you know past presidents took out hundreds of thousands of people, you look at Eisenhower, you look at many of them, they didn’t go through this,” Trump said.
Trump also commended DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan for their roles in the administration’s immigration crackdown.
“It’ll be a much tougher process, and it’s called self-deportation. And by doing that, you know, you’re talking about so many millions of people,” Trump added.
