Would you uproot your whole life for $1,000?
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Yet despite this aggressive approach, the concept of 'voluntary return' has historically failed to gain traction. Past US self-deportation efforts have drawn only a handful of takers out of hundreds of thousands eligible.
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For instance, a pilot program in 2008 was abandoned after only eight people took up the offer to leave the country (it did not offer financial incentives, though),
That's not unique to the United States. Pay-to-go policies, where governments offer money to noncitizens to depart voluntarily, have a lengthy global track record but typically fall short of expectations with very few recipients accepting the offer compared to initial policy goals, according to
This year, only 5,000 people logged their voluntary return in the CBP Home app through early April in the United States, according to
But there are
In Chelsea, one community group has noticed the change. 'They have everything to lose,' Gladys Vega, president and CEO of Chelsea-based La Colaborativa, told me in an interview. 'The high cost of living here, the threat of trauma [if they are arrested], that their kids witness their detention, what the children will experience if the parents are grabbed by ICE, who will look after them?' But Vega also said that many immigrants are experiencing confusion and
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Cristina Jiménez, cofounder of the immigrant youth-led nonprofit
In the end, the self-deportation push is a tacit admission that mass deportations are financially, politically, and logistically challenging — even with the
The administration can't really arrest and deport that many unauthorized immigrants. And it can't bribe them: Imagining that people will leave the only home that many of them have ever known for $1,000 just shows how little the Trump administration understands the immigrants it demonizes. But the administration can scare people — on that score, its campaign is working.
Marcela García is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
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CNBC
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Do Kwon pleads guilty to U.S. fraud charges in $40 billion crypto collapse
Do Kwon, the South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two U.S. charges of conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud. Kwon, 33, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, entered the plea at a court hearing in New York before U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer. He had pleaded not guilty in January to a nine-count indictment charging him with securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Accused of misleading investors in 2021 about TerraUSD — a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a value of $1 — Kwon pleaded guilty to the two counts under an agreement with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office, which brought the charges. He faces up to 25 years in prison when Engelmayer sentences him on December 11, though prosecutor Kimberly Ravener said the government had agreed to advocate for a prison term of no more than 12 years provided he accepts responsibility for his crimes. Kwon is one of several cryptocurrency moguls to face federal charges after a slump in digital token prices in 2022 prompted the collapse of a number of companies. Prosecutors alleged that when TerraUSD slipped below its $1 peg in May 2021, he told investors a computer algorithm known as "Terra Protocol" had restored the coin's value. Instead, they said, he arranged for a high-frequency trading firm to secretly buy millions of dollars of the token to artificially prop up its price. Prosecutors said that false claim and others drove retail and institutional investors to buy Terraform products and boost the value of Luna — a more traditional token that fluctuated in value but was closely linked to TerraUSD — to $50 billion by the spring of 2022. In court, Kwon apologized for his conduct. "I made false and misleading statements about why it regained its peg by failing to disclose a trading firm's role in restoring that peg," Kwon said. "What I did was wrong." Kwon agreed in 2024 to pay $80 million as a civil fine and be banned from crypto transactions as part of a $4.55 billion settlement he and Terraform reached with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Kwon has been detained since his extradition from Montenegro late last year. He also faces charges in South Korea. As part of the deal, prosecutors will not oppose Kwon's potential application to be transferred abroad after serving half his U.S. sentence, Ravener said.
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Vernon food plant pleads guilty after nitrogen leak kills two workers
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New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Disgraced crypto exec Do Kwon to plead guilty to fraud charges in $40B collapse
Do Kwon, the South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022, is planning to plead guilty on Tuesday to two charges of conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud, a judge said at a US court hearing. US District Judge Paul Engelmayer is expected to ask Kwon, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, a series of questions before formally asking him to enter the plea. Kwon, 33, had pleaded not guilty in January to a nine-count indictment charging him with securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Do Kwon, 33, had pleaded not guilty in January to a nine-count indictment charging him with securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering conspiracy. REUTERS The TerraUSD and Luna currencies developed by Kwon lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022. REUTERS He was accused of misleading investors in 2021 about TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a value of $1. Kwon allegedly told investors a computer algorithm known as 'Terra Protocol' had restored the coin's value when it slipped below its peg in May 2021, when in fact he arranged for a high-frequency trading firm to secretly buy millions of dollars of the token to artificially prop up its price. Prosecutors with the Manhattan US Attorney's office said that false claim and others drove retail and institutional investors to buy Terraform products and boost the value of Luna, a more traditional token developed by Kwon that fluctuated in value but was closely linked to TerraUSD, to $50 billion by the spring of 2022. Kwon had agreed in 2024 to pay an $80 million civil fine and be banned from crypto transactions as part of a $4.55 billion settlement that he and Terraform reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Kwon has been detained since his extradition from Montenegro late last year. He is one of several cryptocurrency moguls to face federal charges after a slump in digital token prices in 2022 prompted the collapse of a number of companies.
